Countdown to Chaos
by nalathequeen2186
Summary: When Sonic visits the city of Station Square, he doesn't expect his vacation to be interrupted by a strange watery creature under Eggman's control. But as he and his friends find themselves caught up in a 4000-year-old mystery surrounding the nearby Mystic Ruins, they must rely on each other to stop a threat greater than anyone realizes. (A Sonic Adventure Adaption)
1. Welcome to Station Square

_Hello! Recently I got inspired to do a written adaption of the first Sonic Adventure game - a novelization, if you will. I arranged all the characters' stories in a logical order and wrote hard over a period of two weeks. The result is an 87,000+ word fanfic based on the game, written to the absolute best of my ability. This is a very exciting project for me, as it is by far the longest work I've ever written in my life, and I'm proud of the result._

 _And not to fear - the entire fic is already written! Barring some unforeseeable catastrophe, this fic will never be abandoned. I plan to update with a new chapter every Monday and Friday, until all chapters have been uploaded. I hope you enjoy reading this fic as much as I enjoyed writing it!_

 _Credit to aroczerny for being the first to read through my rough draft, and to isakthedragon for being my unofficial proofreader every time a new chapter goes up!_

 _Can also be found on AO3!_

* * *

 ** _Eggman's jungle base - noon_**

Static.

 _Initiate preliminary startup sequence._

One by one, its functions came online. Heat sensors. Balance servos. Audio detectors.

"Excellent." A voice came through. "All systems, full power!"

The optic units stabilized, and a face came into focus through the fading static.

The unit detected dark glasses, a large red nose, a bushy mustache. A human face, goggles strapped to the top of its head. A very round form, wrapped in a red jacket with gold clasps.

The unit raised its own head and looked beyond the form. A large room lay ahead with various doors lining the walls, a staircase in the center leading down to a lower level, and two tubes, each containing other, significantly differently-shaped units. But those units were sealed away, the translucent walls of the tube enclosing them. This unit was not sealed.

"Look at me!"

The unit refocused its gaze back on the human who had first spoken. It raised an eyebrow.

"I am your brilliant creator, Dr. Robotnik!" It stated its own name in a grandiose fashion, waving an arm in the air for emphasis and then extending a finger toward the unit. "And you're the second of my new E-100 model machines. E-102! Code name: Gamma."

The unit spun its head around a few times, the servos grinding slightly as they moved against each other for the first time. "Gamma," it repeated, testing its name, testing Dr. Robotnik.

"That's right." Gamma found at this moment that it had been installed with facial recognition software. Dr. Robotnik was making an expression of satisfaction, apparently pleased by Gamma's simple vocalization. "And you will henceforth obey only me. Do you understand?"

Obey. _Follow. Comply. Abide. Serve_.

"Now," the doctor said, spinning on its heel and gesturing back at Gamma. "Follow me, and we will see what you are capable of."

An order. Gamma stepped down from the base of its tube, its heavy foot clanking down onto the metal floor below, and walked in file behind the doctor - down the stairs in the center of the room to another set of walls with doors. Dr. Robotnik stopped in front of one of them.

"The shooting range is through here," he said, waving his hand at the door. "Your big brother E-101 - Beta - is in there practicing already." He showed his teeth in what Gamma interpreted was supposed to be a smile. "Enter and show me what you are capable of! You're not as advanced as Beta is… but I'm sure you'll do fine."

He pressed a button on a console next to the door, which slid open with a soft _whoosh_. Gamma stepped inside, into the darkness, and the door shut behind it.

One by one, dim lights on the ceiling flickered on to reveal the contents of the room. Stuffed dolls, made out of colorful red and yellow fabric but limp and dead eyed, hung off various poles and metal spiked on the walls and floor. Gamma scanned the yellow one first and found a partial match in its databanks.

 _Miles "Tails" Prower. Fox. Mechanical genius, though nowhere near as talented as the brilliant Dr. Robotnik._

The doctor must have filled Gamma's databanks with important information. It scanned the red one next, finding another profile. _Knuckles the Echidna. Guardian of the Master Emerald. Ability: super strength, though it simply cannot compare to the strength of the brilliant Dr. Robotnik's mind._

"Let's put your abilities to the test, Gamma!" The doctor's voice was filtering through a speaker somewhere in the room, sounding tinny and distant. "I want you to find the Sonic doll somewhere in this shooting range… and blow it to bits!"

Gamma raised its right arm. Instead of a hand, like on its left arm, this one was tipped by a cannon with an aiming laser beneath it.

"And don't be shy about using the other dolls for a little target practice along the way!"

"Acknowledged," Gamma said, and swept its aiming laser across every doll within sight, painting the targets with small holographic icons. Once every doll was marked, it fired, small energy missiles exploding out of the end of the cannon and homing in on the targets. Each doll exploded in a cloud of fluff, their remnants strewn across the metal grating on the floor.

"Excellent!"

Gamma walked further into the range, marking every doll it saw in the same manner and leaving bits of burnt doll stuffing in its wake. The shooting range went deep, and from somewhere further along Gamma could detect the sound of another cannon firing. But it paid it no mind. The other cannon was not related to its mission.

"The _Sonic_ doll…."

Against the opposite wall of the room Gamma had just entered was a single blue doll, hanging limply off its spike. Gamma scanned it and read the data that appeared.

 _Sonic the Hedgehog. Dr. Robotnik's arch-nemesis. Known harnesser of Chaos Emeralds to achieve a super state. Ability: super speed, though nowhere near fast enough to outrun the doom the brilliant Dr. Robotnik has planned for him!_

This was the correct doll. Gamma raised its cannon, preparing to paint the target as it had the others, but no sooner had it moved than the spike the doll was attached to ground into motion, racing toward the side of the wall to disappear into a crevice. Gamma adjusted its aim, marking the doll three times for good measure, and let the missiles fly - all of them struck the doll squarely, and it exploded into dismembered doll bits.

"Mission complete," Gamma said, and turned back to exit the range.

* * *

 ** _Eggman's jungle base - noon_**

Just outside the door, the doctor awaited Gamma's return.

"Excellent job, Gamma!" he said as it stepped out into the main room, raising his arms appreciatively. He gestured Gamma toward the center of the room. "I didn't think you had what it takes! You even beat the secret time limit I had set for you."

Positive feedback raced across Gamma's processors. _Serving the doctor is a priority_ , it seemed to say.

"I tried a different design on you than I used for the others in the E-100 series," Dr. Robotnik continued, hands clasped behind his back. "Zero was a dud, barely good for anything - I'll be sending him on menial missions. I gave Beta significantly more firepower than you, and I'm still convinced he's the better of you two…."

The positive feedback stalled.

"After all, that was only a very simple test." The doctor showed Gamma his teeth again. "I have another one for you… and if you want to stay on board, you must be able to pass it. SO pay attention to what I say! The almighty Egg Carrier is a flying fortress that needs a good crew - no, the best!" He gestured to the door of the shooting range. "Beta, come forth!"

The door slid open once more, and a black and white unit stepped out. Its shape was familiar, similar to Gamma's own, but possessing two bulkier cannons on the end of each arm. It stomped forward with more force than Gamma's steps produced, and stood still.

"I'd like you to meet your older brother, E-101. Just call him Beta. I'm pitting the two of you against each other, and the winner serves on my ship." The doctor pressed his lips together, the corners of his mouth raising. "I put my bets on Beta, but I owe you at least a fair chance. Don't disappoint me, either of you!"

Dr. Robotnik performed an exaggerated about-face, walking back up the stairs and leaning over the railing overhead to watch the spectacle below.

As soon as the doctor was clear of danger, Beta struck. It raised its cannon and fired a missile straight at Gamma. Gamma sidestepped it easily, scanning it as it passed - far thicker than one of its own, and made of solid material, not pure energy.

This meant Beta had a limited number of missiles, while Gamma had as many as its energy level would supply. _Must use this to my advantage -_

Something impacted against Gamma from behind, sending it stumbling and nearly toppling over. Heat radiated from the impact center, and Gamma could sense some damage to its external armor chassis.

"Oh ho ho!" came the doctor's voice from above. "I knew Beta would do better in a _real_ fight!"

 _Homing missiles_. It seemed Gamma was not the only unit equipped with those.

Beta raised its other cannon, firing off another shot, but this time Gamma was more prepared. Instead of sidestepping the attack, it painted the missile itself as a target, and let loose a projectile of its own, glowing blue and sparking with energy. The missiles collided in a blast of heat between the two units, and as Beta readied itself for another attack, Gamma used the opportunity to paint its brother.

Three times, the same as the Sonic doll.

Three energy missiles burst out of the end of Gamma's cannon, and a second later all three impacted Beta - in the head, in the midsection, inside the barrel of one of its own cannons. It teetered and sparked slightly, then went still.

For a moment, silence reigned in the room.

Then laughter boomed from above, and Gamma detected footsteps, heels clinking on the metal stairs. The doctor's round form came into view, stepping into the center of the two units. "Oh ho ho ho! You surprised me, Gamma!"

Straightening itself as best it could despite the damage, Beta stepped closer to Dr. Robotnik. Gamma stayed still where it was, cannon still raised in a ready position.

"Your older brother might have technically superior firepower, but you, Gamma… you have _smarts!_ I had a funny feeling there was more to you than meets the eye." Teeth. "I, Dr. Robotnik, hereby grant Gamma permission to serve on board the Egg Carrier!"

Beta stepped forward once again, this time standing almost between Gamma and its master. It had not made a single vocalization in all this time, but the meaning of its action was perfectly clear.

"So you want to come along with us, eh?" The doctor's lip curled slightly. Beta bobbed up and down, though whether this was a response to the question or a side effect of the damage it had sustained, however minor, Gamma could not deduce. "Very well… we could always use a spare set of parts, I guess. You have _special_ permission."

Beta stopped bobbing. Gamma lowered its cannon.

"Both of you, be ready! The fortress takes off this evening, under cover of darkness." The doctor spun on his heel and headed for a door on the other side of the room. "We have a special mission tonight, and I won't be late for my appointment."

And with that, the door slid shut behind the doctor, leaving Gamma and Beta standing next to one another in perfect silence.

 _Serving the doctor… is a priority._

* * *

 ** _Above the ocean - evening_**

The evening was dark, even directly after sunset, and the Egg Carrier slipped through the clouds high above the earth without notice. Eggman had one destination in mind, and one plan - and all he needed was one clear shot.

"Set course for Angel Island!"

* * *

 ** _Angel Island altar - evening_**

On an altar crumbling from thousands of years of wear, resting on the floating landmass known as Angel Island, a small red figure dozed quietly. Perhaps he hadn't meant to fall asleep so early, as he was still in a sitting position - but his eyes had drooped, and before Knuckles the Echidna knew it, he had drifted off for the night.

 _As far back as I can remember, I've been living here on this dark island…_

Had he ever left? Hazy memories drifted through his mind - a year ago, no, two….

 _…always guarding the Master Emerald from anything that could harm it…._

A large, round figure, approaching his altar….

 _I don't know why I was given this job, why it was my fate… destined to be here…_

Here?

 _…forever!_

A sharp crack split the silence of the night, and instantly Knuckles' eyes popped open. He scrambled to his feet, hands clenched into fists.

 _The Master Emerald!_

He spun around, half expecting another false alarm - another loud crack of thunder shaking him from his nightly rest, or a bird causing a racket in a nearby tree, but no such luck. Standing at the top of the altar, back to the steps, Knuckles found himself face to face with the strangest creature he'd ever seen.

It looked like it was made of water, but the color was wrong, a thick turquoise, almost poisonous in appearance. It stood on two feet, nearly twice as tall as him, and stared down at him with piercing, solid green eyes. Behind the eyes, its brain was visible - a pink mass floating freely in its liquid body.

Knuckles felt a chill run down his spine at the sight.

"Who are you?" he demanded, already preparing for a fight, but then another sight made his breath catch in his throat.

 _No - !_

The creature stood in front of the Master Emerald - or rather, what was left of it. Scattered shards littered the ground behind it, not nearly enough to comprise the entire mass of the emerald. Most of it was simply… gone.

"The Master Emerald!" Anger and grief tinged his voice. Then Knuckles felt his gaze harden as a hot fury rose in his throat. He locked eyes on the creature once more; in all this time, it had made no move. "Did _you_ do this?"

The creature just stared, impassive.

"Answer me!" Knuckles lunged forward, thrusting his fist forward spikes first. It made contact, and he yelled in a furious triumph - but his fist sank harmlessly into the creature's liquid form. He barely had enough time to look up in shock before it raised its arm and slapped him directly across the face, sending him sprawling.

"Agh!" He tumbled backwards down the stairs at the front of the altar, hitting the ground at the bottom with a grunt of pain. Digging his heels into the ground, he managed to steady himself, and looked back up to the top of the altar, where some kind of orange spark was rising into the air at an erratic pace - _no doubt from what that_ monster _just did!_

He charged full speed back up the steps, fist ready for another try, but as he reached the top the creature began to… melt. Knuckles skidded to a stop and stared in shock as its form dissolved until it was just a puddle of bluish goo on the floor. He clenched his fists, readying himself for a surprise attack, but the puddle began to shrink and evaporate, and by the time he ran up to it, the ground was dry.

"No!" he yelled, dropping to his knees and smacking his palm against the bare stone. "No, no, _no!_ You shattered the Master Emerald! _You shattered my emerald!_ "

He went quiet, his harsh breaths now the only sound in the cold night. The faint glow from the remaining emerald shards, so small and so few, seemed to mock him, blame him.

The ground beneath him began to rumble ominously.

"Oh no…" he murmured.

 _Without the Master Emerald's power, this whole island will fall_ ….

He remained on the stone where he was kneeling, eyes closed as the descent began.

 _I've failed._

* * *

 ** _Station Square - night_**

Miles and miles away from Angel Island, the city of Station Square bustled with life. Even though it was late at night, the city thrived, crowds wandering the busy streets, chattering at the sights and enjoying the amenities. It was the middle of summer, after all, and Station Square had no shortage of beach resorts and tourist attractions, making it one of the country's most popular vacation spots.

And Sonic loved every minute of it.

He'd just arrived back in the city a few hours ago, after months of being away, and had been celebrating by running at top speed along the rooftops. It really was his kind of place - nothing ever moved slow here. He might like the wilds, with plenty of space to run free - might like the soft beauty of nature - but he had to admit, big cities like this one struck a chord with him.

No one on the streets saw him as he ran. He moved too fast, and stayed near the top of the city, on the rooftops, sometimes daring himself to run sideways along the walls without falling off before bounding back up to relative safety. From his vantage point, he saw and heard everything around him. The glimmering lights, the people, the…

 _Police sirens?_

Sonic skidded to a halt on top of a building near the beach, looking over the edge to the street several stories down. Sure enough, several police cars were swerving haphazardly along the road, tires screeching. They looked almost panicked, and people gasped in their wake, leaping back in alarm.

Sonic grinned to himself. "Aw yeah, this is happenin'!" he said to no one in particular. Where there were cops, there were bad guys - and where there were bad guys, there was always a need for heroes, or so he figured. At the very least, even if they didn't need his help, he could always enjoy the spectacle.

Wasting no more time, he did a front flip off the roof, landing gracefully in the middle of a shocked group of tourists, and took off after the squad cars in a blur of blue.

* * *

 ** _Station Square - night_**

The building the commotion led him to turned out to be the courtyard of Station Square's city hall. Sonic caught up just as the cops were getting out of their cars, which were all positioned outside the courtyard as a kind of barrier.

"You are completely surrounded!" one of the cops called out, but Sonic couldn't see who they were talking to. Frustrated, he tried to peer over or around the cars, a feat made difficult by his small stature.

"Lock on target, men!" the voice yelled again, echoing around the courtyard. "Ready… FIRE!"

The sound of gunfire rang out, much to Sonic's shock. He winced. _Not what I came here for_ …. He looked away, hoping nothing too horrible was happening in that courtyard, and caught the eye of several brave spectators who had gathered nearby to watch, as close as they dared. One locked eyes with him and gasped, pointing. "Sonic - !"

"Shhh," he said, waving his hand, and she covered her mouth with her hand, looking abashed.

 _Nice to know I have fans, at least_.

The gunfire ceased abruptly.

"It's no good! Our weapons are useless against that creature!"

Sonic's ear perked up. Maybe this wouldn't be as gruesome as he'd feared….

An appalling squelching noise emanated from the courtyard, followed by the same cop's voice one last time, sounding panicked. "Retreat! All personnel, fall back!"

"I think it's finally time to join the fray!" Sonic said, rolling his shoulders once. He crouched and leapt up onto one of the squad cars just as the cops passed him, looking shocked.

"Hey - is that - ?"

" _Sonic!_ "

"Hey guys!" he said, but he wasn't paying attention to them any longer. His gaze had been drawn by the strange creature standing in the middle of the courtyard, bullets littering the ground at its feet.

 _It's like it's made out of water… yikes_.

If he didn't know better, he'd have thought someone cooked up this monster just to spite him. But then again, what was the likelihood of drowning inside a living creature?

"This could be fun!" He rolled easily off the front of the car, stopping in front of the creature, which was standing still as though it hadn't just been pelted with bullets from six different guns. "If you've been causing trouble around here, then it looks like I'm gonna have to take you down!"

The creature's alien green eyes narrowed immediately, and it took a menacing step forward. That was when Sonic noticed something he hadn't seen before… its brain, floating free in its liquid body and seeming almost to glow slightly.

"That's the ticket!" he said aloud, and just as the creature lunged forward, taking its first swipe at him, he leapt up. He curled into a ball, sharp spines on the outside, and homed in on the brain, striking it hard through the goo.

The creature let out an odd noise, a sort of low sloshing howl that made his skin crawl, and as he rebounded it struck out again immediately. Sonic barely had time to land before dodging the blow, but the creature seemed clumsy and slow.

He laughed as he dodged again. "Come on!" he called as it swung, this time letting his feet connect with its arm and bouncing off it toward the courtyard wall. The soles of his shoes planted firmly against the concrete, and he launched himself away - directly at the creature, striking its brain a second time.

Another howl. This time, as Sonic landed, it chose a different tactic. It leapt high in the air and landed on a lamppost, its feet melting into a solid mass to keep itself attached to the top. An arm shot out, stretching to reach the ground, and Sonic. He rolled to avoid the strike, then another. The creature unfused its feet only to leap to another light post and repeat its attack.

"Hey, that's cheating!" Sonic yelled, dodging its arm, which struck the ground hard enough to leave a spiderweb crack in the pavement. If he was going to take this thing out, he'd have to get higher.

 _The lampposts…._

"Yeah, that'll work!"

As the creature's arm shot out yet again, he raced toward the lamppost opposite his foe's with as much speed as he could muster in a short distance. He leaped at the last moment, his fingers closing tightly around the pole, allowing his momentum to carry him around and upwards in a spin. After a few tight rotations, he let go, aiming his feet directly at the monster's head.

It worked - his soles connected with the brain, and the creature was knocked hard from its perch, splashing down onto the pavement. Sonic landed just beyond it, sticking the landing perfectly, to the sound of cheering coming from the direction of the cop cars. He smiled, satisfied, and dusted off his gloves.

"Ah, it was nothing…."

He turned around, expecting to see a rather disgusting wet patch on the ground, only to notice that the residue from the creature wasn't staying put. In fact, it seemed to be gathering itself together into a goopy puddle, and sliding across the pavement towards a drain.

"Hey, come on, you big drip!" he shouted after it. "Where ya going?"

With a slurping sound, the puddle sucked itself down through the grates, leaving the courtyard looking hardly the worse for wear - as if nothing had even occurred there.

"Down into the dumps where you belong, huh?" Sonic crossed his arms, grinning down at the drain and tapping a finger. Station Square promised to offer him even more excitement than he had figured, if this was the sort of stuff that went on around here….

"You know nothing, fool!"

Sonic's head snapped up to find the source of this new voice.

"It's Chaos - the god of destruction!"

"Aw, geez…."

Floating above the city hall in his Egg Mobile was none other than Dr. Eggman himself. Sonic's mouth twisted ruefully as the doctor descended into maniacal laughter, then flew away into the night, his laughing still echoing around the courtyard.

"Figures he'd be behind something like this," Sonic said wryly.

"Mr. Sonic!" came a voice from the direction of the squad car barrier.

"Just call me Sonic," he said automatically as he turned to face the cop approaching him.

"We can't thank you enough for showing up when you did," the man said, obviously relieved. "There was no way we'd have been able to take him down on our own."

"Well, maybe not," Sonic said, grinning again. "Lucky I'm here to take care of things!"

He hopped onto the car again, staring out into the square beyond. Curious faces peered back at him, but already the other officers were ushering them back, away from the scene. "And if Eggman's back causing trouble, I'm gonna need my beauty sleep…."

* * *

 ** _Station Square sewers - night_**

The water from the sewers rushed out of the city, and the remnants of the creature washed with it. It turned corners, splashed down pipes, and it finally took a turn too hard, separating a small fragment just as it reached the open air.

The fragment trailed sluggishly along the ground, looking for the rest of its body, but instead slithered straight into a cool stream. The stream traveled away from the city, for miles and miles, until it reached a jungle, flowing peacefully beneath the canopy of the trees above.

 _must… find… the rest of me…._

And to do that, it needed a body….

It regained just enough strength, drawing from the cool liquid in which it was submersed, to lash out at the first living creature it sensed - a small, green frog perched at the edge of the water.

* * *

 ** _Mystic Ruins jungle - midnight_**

Big woke suddenly from a deep slumber, his favorite fishing rod still clutched tightly in one hand. He sat up in his bed, rubbing his amber eyes and automatically looking around his small open-air dwelling for his best friend.

"Wha… Froggy?"

There were no frogs to be found anywhere he looked. Big sat up further, worry beginning to course through him, until he spotted Froggy sitting at the edge of the stream just a few feet away.

"Oh, there you are," he sighed. Then he frowned.

"Froggy, is that you?"

The frog had his back to Big, and was shivering violently. And even stranger….

"You're looking kinda weird, good buddy… what's up with the _tail?_ "

Big had always thought frogs lost their tails as they grew up. He scratched his head in confusion. Did he have it backwards?

Froggy turned around and hopped closer, croaking strangely. Big reached down to scoop him up in concern, but Froggy evaded and leapt onto his table.

"Hey - "

 _Gulp!_

Big turned and gasped. "You swallowed my lucky charm!"

The glowing yellow gem had disappeared into Froggy's mouth. Big had found it nearly a week ago, half-buried in the mud next to his favorite fishing spot, and he hadn't had a bad catch since.

"Froggy! You know how much I like that thing - "

Froggy gave another strange croak and hopped off the table, heading deeper into the jungle without so much as a backwards glance.

"Come back here!" Big said, scrambling off his wooden bed and nearly toppling over in the process. "What's wrong with you?"

 _Something's not right,_ he thought. _We've always been friends… for years_ ….

"Froggy!" he called again as his friend's strange new tail disappeared into the dark between the trees. His fingers fumbled with the straps on his sandals in his haste to put them on. "Wait up!"

Big took off into the jungle after his friend, fishing rod on his shoulder.


	2. Windy and Ripply

**_Station Square - morning_**

Knuckles stood uncomfortably in the middle of Station Square, just outside the train station, feeling more than a little overwhelmed.

This was the first time he had been in such a crowded place, never mind a human-dominated place. He wasn't good with people. Just taking the train from where Angel Island fell to here had been humiliating enough.

He'd found the station occupied by a single person, a human woman, dressed in a slightly wrinkled uniform and looking tired and bored. The train was mercifully already in the station as Knuckles approached, walking up creaky wooden steps to the tiny outdoor platform. "Hey," the station master had said, waving a hand sleepily. There were dark circles under her eyes.

"Where does this lead?" Knuckles had asked.

"Station Square, hon. You didn't know? S'the only way from here to there that doesn't mean off-road backpacking." She grumbled a little. "And I'm the lucky lady who gets to be stationed all the way out here, in the middle of nowhere…."

Knuckles frowned. She seemed all too calm considering her proximity to Angel Island. "You didn't notice the gigantic island falling from the sky nearby just a little while ago?"

"What?" She rubbed at her eyes and peered closely at him. "I was asleep, man. Not much to do around here when there's no train in the station. You sure you're not hallucinating or something?"

In the end, Knuckles had gained access to the train for the price of a single ring, which had formed near the Master Emerald earlier that evening and which the woman had deemed "sweet" - he supposed rings were not common in human areas, after all - and now here he stood, squinting in the bright light of the morning sun, in the middle of this unfamiliar city.

"It's up to me to find the missing pieces of the Master Emerald," he said under his breath, trying to steady himself. Pieces had flown off everywhere, in all directions from the island, and there were sure to be some here - picked up by curious citygoers thinking they'd found a shiny trinket, or lying abandoned in the shadows on the side of the road.

He took a deep breath and clenched his fists. He would find them all, no matter what it took. This was his duty - a chance to fix his mistake.

"Guess I'd better start looking anywhere I can…."

* * *

 ** _Above Station Square - morning_**

High above the city, a clunky, old-fashioned gray plane crossed the sky, drifting just below the clouds. It wasn't pretty, but the engine buzzed with a surprising amount of power, and the rising sun glinted off the dull metal of its frame. Its pilot, a small yellow fox, smiled happily into the wind.

"Everything's working great!" Tails said aloud, tilting the plane slightly to give himself a better view of the city below. The sun had only risen a few hours ago, but already the city bustled with activity - residents heading for work, tourists chattering as they saw the sights. From up here they were tiny. He righted the plane and closed his eyes for a few moments, simply enjoying the flight.

Opening his eyes, Tails readied himself to test his new engine. "All systems go!" he said, upping the plane's speed in a sudden burst of confidence. "Full speed ahead!"

The acceleration pushed him back into his seat and he laughed as it gathered speed. This was the first plane he had built himself - and finished, anyway - and he couldn't believe how well it was working. He pushed it faster… faster… and suddenly a horrible grinding noise came from the engine.

"Uh oh…."

Smoke began to billow from the front of the plane, sending Tails into a coughing fit as it flew back directly into his face.

 _Not good, not good - !_

Then the nose of the plane began to drop.

"Nooooo!"

He pulled up hard, and the plane shuddered as it tried to respond to his command, but it was rapidly spiraling out of control. All Tails could do was scream and hold on tight as he plummeted past the city limits and straight toward the ocean.

* * *

 ** _Station Square hotel - morning_**

Sonic was still curled up in a lounge chair next to the local beach hotel's pool, where he'd been since the previous night's battle. He'd hopped the wall into the hotel limits earlier and picked a chair to sleep in, and so far no one had seen fit to kick him out, which was fine by him.

He might have continued napping all morning, but the faint sound of yelling roused him from his sleep.

"Huh?" he said, raising his head, still feeling a little groggy. The sun hovered over the ocean just ahead, casting glittering bright lights across the water - but Sonic noticed something was passing erratically in front of it. It looked like an old-fashioned biplane, and just barely visible from this distance, piloting the out-of-control vehicle, was….

"Tails?" Sonic said, jerking to full awakeness and scrambling to his feet. The tiny fox was only a yellow speck in the seat of the plane from here, but it was unmistakably him. The plane, trailing thick gray smoke from the engine, disappeared from view behind a cliff, still spiraling.

"Watch out!" Sonic kicked into action immediately, racing across the pool area (ignoring the "no running" signs plastered on the walls" and hopped over the hotel's outer wall onto the soft sand of the beachfront. "You're gonna crash!"

No sooner had the words left his mouth than he heard a distant, muffled _whump_ from further along the beach. Sonic shook his head in frustration and worry. "Ah, Tails…."

He dug his shoes into the sand, gaining purchase, and took off. The waves washed gently against the shore beside him, seagulls crying overhead, and in spite of his concern for his friend he couldn't help enjoying himself. The beach was long and extended into the sea as a series of small, picturesque islands, wooden bridges connecting each landmass for the explorative pleasure of the city's residents and tourists. Sonic could see a small wispy plume of smoke rising from one of the furthest ones out, far into the sea, and skidded left, adjusting his course and building up speed.

"Hey, that's Sonic!"

The cry came from his other side, and he glanced over to see a few vacationers sitting on beach towels and pointing excitedly. "Hi guys!" he yelled, grinning and raising a hand in quick greeting, then poured on the speed, their cries of delight following him as he sped along the beach.

He crossed the first bridge, the wood creaking from the tempo of his feet pounding on the slats, and ran upward along the side of a rocky outcropping. He never planned his route in advance, simply ran wherever the landscape took him. At the top he had a split second to process the dropoff in front of him and the smooth rock wall extending outward to his right, and altered course just enough to plant his feet on the wall, running sideways just as he had on the skyscrapers of Station Square last night. He'd never dared himself to run along a sheer surface for such a distance before, but falling meant plunging into the foaming water of the cove below, and he didn't plan to get wet today. _Not without knowing how deep that water is, anyhow_ ….

Thirty feet - twenty - the rock wall curved suddenly outward, leaving him no more space to run, and he pushed off hard, grabbing the fronds of a palm tree growing out the top of the cliff. He used his momentum to swing around and up, let go and flipped for good measure, and landed solidly on the top of the wall, still running. "Woohoo!" he yelled, pumping a fist in triumph as he reached the end of the wall and slid down a rocky slope back onto sand once again. The smoke was closer now, and it wouldn't take him long to reach Tails.

Another bridge lay before him, this one the longest yet. It was a straight shot, perfect for pushing his speed to its limits - the soles of his shoes slapped against the wooden boards as he balled his hands into fists, faster, faster - he thought he was home free until just a few feet ahead, the bridge exploded into a thousand wooden splinters.

There was no time to think - he jumped, feet landing on the orca whale that had just destroyed the bridge from beneath, and pushed off with all his might, flying high into the air and shouting ecstatically. Before he curled up to prepare for a landing, he took a moment to glance around - the whole ocean lay before him, sparkling under the light of the newly risen sun, the resort and city behind him coming to life with a new day.

Gravity took its course, and a few moments later Sonic was back on solid ground. He spotted a twisted grayish shape just ahead and skidded, kicking up a wave of sand in front of him until he slowed to a stop just before hitting the thing. The plane! And sitting in front of it, looking dazed, was….

"Tails!"

Sonic knelt down to check on him. He looked a little rough, a few small scraped showing through his fur - no doubt due to crashing down onto abrasive beach sand - but after a few moments he opened his eyes fully, and noticed the form hovering over him.

"Uhh… Sonic?"

"You okay buddy?" Sonic said, straightening back up and offering a hand. Tails accepted it, and once on his feet he began to brush himself off, looking a little abashed.

"Hey, Sonic," he said, shaking himself and sending grains of sand flying everywhere. "Been a while, huh?"

"You're lucky I saw you come down," Sonic said, crossing his arms. "I'm just glad you're okay.

"I didn't even know you were in the area."

"Just got in last night. I meant to come visit you today, but it looks like you had other plans." Sonic glanced over Tails' shoulder at the wreck. "Uh, anything you can salvage from that thing? It looks pretty beat."

"Oh right, yeah." Tails turned and dropped to his knees, and began to wrestle with something at the nose of the plane, where the smoke seemed to be emitting from.

"What happened, anyway? You're too good of a pilot to just crash like that."

Tails shrugged his shoulders a little, and though Sonic couldn't see his face, when he spoke he sounded a little embarrassed. "Yeah, it was just a test run using a new prototype propulsion system, and it's not fully compatible yet. I thought that linking it in directly to the engine would produce enough lift to offset the cost of the…."

 _Sometimes I'd say that kid's too smart for his own good_ , Sonic thought, shaking his head affectionately. Tails chattered on about power systems and internal wiring, working away at the panel he'd opened.

"Why not just use the Tornado?" Sonic asked when Tails paused to take a breath. "You know I let you borrow it whenever you want."

"Thanks, Sonic," he said absently, yanking something from the plane's interior, "but if I can make this work, it'll run circles around yours."

Sonic huffed a little.

"Look - check out my new power supply!"

He straightened up and turned to face Sonic, triumphantly holding out a glittering purple gem in his palms. Sonic's eyes widened.

"A Chaos Emerald!"

"Yep!" Tails looked immensely pleased with himself. "I just happened to find one of them during one of my test flights. This thing's got unlimited power, you know… so I figured, why not reconfigure the engine to use it as a power supply? Super charged!" At this, he lifted a little into the air, twin tails whirling, and did a quick backflip, all negative effects from his crash seemingly already forgotten.

Sonic whistled, impressed despite himself. "Sounds good to me. Think you could outfit the Tornado with that kinda power too?"

"Ehh, the Tornado's a little old for that," Tails said. "Don't get me wrong, it's a good plane, but…."

"No worries, buddy!" Sonic gestured back the way he came. "Wanna start heading back? We might have to find another way over that bridge, though…."

"Oh… what happened?" Tails peered around Sonic at the floating wreckage of the bridge. Sonic rubbed the back of his neck.

"Uh, long story."

"Well, that's no problem." Tails tucked the emerald away and grabbed onto Sonic's hands. "Allow me!"

Sonic laughed as Tails' namesakes began to whirl above his head, and the ground fell away beneath him as they took off.

"You gotta come over to my workshop in the Mystic Ruins, Sonic!" Tails said as he reached the peak of his flight and they began to descend back onto the intact part of the bridge. "I'll show you what I've been working on. The fastest way should be by train, from the station in the city."

"What, faster than me?"

Tails giggled a little, setting him down on the planks and landing beside him. "Sonic, you know I can't keep up with you at top speed, at least not in a straight line…"

Sonic opened his mouth.

"… _and_ the last time you gave me a piggy back ride, I got slapped in the face by your spines. A lot."

Sonic grumbled a little under his breath. "…gotta point." He winked at Tails. "Get it? _Point?_ "

Tails rolled his eyes, then grinned, looking suddenly mischievous. "Hey… race you back to the city!"

He took off, twin tails whirling once more, heading for the top of the same rocky outcropping Sonic had just traversed. Sonic snickered to himself, pulling at the edge of one of his gloves and adjusting his stance.

"All right, buddy… you got it!"

* * *

 ** _Station Square - noon_**

Heads certainly turned at midday as a six-and-a-half foot purple cat stepped out of the train station and into the heart of Station Square.

"Wow," a little girl said in awe, craning her neck to stare up at Big. "What a huge cat! Meow!"

"Meow!" he repeated good-naturedly, though he didn't know what it meant, and she giggled.

Big sobered quickly as she walked on and he began to stare around at the square. He'd seen Froggy hop onto a train in the Mystic Ruins just before the doors closed, leaving him behind, bereft of his long-time best friend. He'd waited around for the next train for hours, determined to find Froggy and figure out what was wrong with him no matter what, but looking around at the sheer size of everything in the city, he felt daunted. He'd lived his whole life in the jungle, meeting only the occasional human explorer or fellow wild Mobian - a human settlement of this scale was positively mind-boggling.

"Yoohoo, Froggy," he said, wandering from side to side uncertainly. "Come out, come out, wherever you are!"

No sign of Froggy, but he got a few odd looks from passersby.

"Oh man…." Big looked around at the cars and people rushing past, far faster than anything he was ever used to. "Where could my pollywog pal be, anyway?"

His ears drooped slightly, but nevertheless he hoisted his fishing pole back up against his shoulder, striding further into the city.

* * *

 ** _Station Square city hall - noon_**

"No!"

"If you'd just listen to - "

"I said _no!_ "

Knuckles closed his eyes and sighed in frustration. He'd been arguing with this man in a suit, who claimed to be the mayor, for a ridiculous amount of time now, and he was rapidly getting tired of it.

"This is a crime scene as of last night, as I'm sure you can tell from the police tape surrounding the area!" The mayor jabbed a finger at the yellow tape covering the entrance to the courtyard Knuckles was currently trying to gain access to. "Police Line - Do Not Cross" was printed in bold letters along the entire thing.

"I can't read," Knuckles deadpanned.

"But you can sure as well hear, and I'm telling you no! If I catch you trying to climb over the tape into the city hall courtyard one more time, I'm calling the police! Now scram, you little anteater!"

The mayor stalked off, and Knuckles puffed out his chest in anger before sighing and deflating, looking down at the shard clutched in his hand. It was only one single shard, found lying in a back alley on pavement thinly carpeted with tourist trash, but it was all he had right now. He'd been able to faintly sense its presence from close by, but now, with it on his person, sensing the other pieces of the Master Emerald around the city was becoming easier. His internal compass told him that one of the shards was somewhere in the vicinity of the city hall he'd just been denied access to.

 _What do I care how they react? Restoring the Master Emerald is my top priority. If these humans don't like it, too bad._

But it wouldn't do to have the local law enforcement after him before he completed his search. That would only complicate things, and Knuckles didn't like complicated. So how to get past the tape without being seen…?

He turned around to see the mayor glaring at him suspiciously from across the street. Rolling his shard around in his hand, Knuckles sighed, slumped his shoulders, and strolled back the way he'd come, away from the city hall, until he was sure that the mayor wasn't watching him anymore. Then he ducked into an alley between two nearby buildings.

"This'll work," he muttered, and, storing the shard safely away, punched his fist into the wall.

It stuck, and he smiled. _Perfect_.

He climbed up several stories in this manner, all the way to the roof, and pulled himself up over the edge. From here he could see across much of the immediate area in the city, cars rushing past far below him. And without so many buildings blocking his way, he realized he could feel a faint tug from several different directions - more shards.

"They're all over the city!" he breathed. It wouldn't be easy to get them all back, but he could do it. He knew how to find them now. The wind blew his quills gently as he turned to look back at the city hall. There was definitely a shard somewhere near there, he could feel it. He backed up, took a running start, and leapt off the rooftop, aiming for the next one over. The air caught beneath his quills, and let him glide with just enough distance to grab onto the flat roof edge.

Knuckles made his way back to the city hall like this, gliding from rooftop to rooftop with the people on the ground below him none the wiser. This was a far better way to travel than walking amongst the humans, most of whom were unfairly tall compared to him, making it difficult to see where he was going. Once he was sure no snooty humans in suits were looking in the direction of the city hall, he dropped down into the courtyard.

The mayor had been right, Knuckles observed grudgingly - there _was_ evidence of a fight having occurred here earlier. He noticed a few stray bullet casings lying on the ground, swept into corners by later activity and forgotten, and part of the pavement in the center of the courtyard was cracked as if from a strong blow. He knelt down, running his hand over the spiderwebbed markings. _Hmm_. If this had happened only last night, the same night the Master Emerald had been shattered… could there be a connection?

He shook his head to clear it. _Focus, Knuckles. You're not here to play guessing games_.

But speaking of the Master Emerald… the pull was strong here. The shard was definitely close. He stood back up, closing his eyes and walking slowly in the direction his senses were pulling him to. _There… no,_ here….

Something hit the toe of his shoe, and his eyes popped open. He sucked in a breath. Here it was! Lying discarded in this far corner of the courtyard. No sun would have reached it in this time; it might have looked like an empty green bottle from afar, just another piece of tourist clutter. Knuckles bent and took it in his hand. Yes, this was it - another shard.

He couldn't waste time congratulating himself, though. There were numerous other shards to find, and the longer Angel Island was grounded, the worse things could get. He stored the shard away on his person, and leapt back up onto the courtyard wall, away from the square. He could already feel another emerald shard somewhere nearby, and he was determined to get it.

* * *

 ** _Mystic Ruins - early afternoon_**

Maybe Tails had been right - Sonic would have been far too fast for him to keep up had they run directly from the city - but Sonic was still thoroughly restless by the time the train finally rolled into the station at the Mystic Ruins.

He was out before the doors had fully opened, bolting out and nearly toppling off the edge of the raised platform. "Geez!" He waved his arms wildly to regain his balance. "What kind of a station is this?"

"A wooden one," Tails said, exiting behind him. "It's not like the ruins are a popular hangout spot - they're mostly uncharted and out of the way. Not a lot of people come out here. Mostly explorers, I think - and me!"

Sonic took his first look at his surroundings from his high perch. Straight ahead, a sheer cliff face rose tall above the landscape. A waterfall splashed out of the side into a small lake filled with greenish water and huge lilypads. Closer by, the ground was mostly made up of dirt and coarse grass, with a few scattered trees. To the right, a wood-marked path led to a large hill with stone steps carved into the side leading to the top, where a small shack stood - and beyond that, a dropoff to the ocean, dozens of feet below.

Sonic could hear the splashing of the waves from here. He whistled. "Nice place! Not a lot of room to run, though." He decided to forgo the rough-cut wooden stairs leading down to the dusty ground, instead leaping off and landing effortlessly on his feet.

"But a lot of room to work," Tails said, landing next to him. "That's why I chose it - and the train leads directly into the city if I ever need supplies."

"Meh. Too much water for my tastes."

"You could always head into the jungle nearby," Tails said, shrugging and glancing off to his left. "Or the…."

He frowned.

Sonic followed his gaze to see a small cluster of humans in explorers' gear, chattering to one another near the cliff face.

"That's weird," Tails said. "I thought the big expedition wasn't planned until next week."

"Expedition?" Sonic said, following after Tails as he approached the group. "What expedition?"

"Um… hey…" Tails said as they drew near, twin tails flicking around behind him.

One of the humans took notice and looked down. "Hey, look! It's a little fox boy!"

"My name is Tails, actually…."

"Tails?" Another explorer raised an eyebrow, and the whole group turned to look. "You mean the Tails who owns that workshop up on the hill over there?"

"That's the one!" Sonic chimed in, throwing an arm around Tails' shoulders. "The one and only! Tails, buddy, you didn't tell me you were famous."

"Ah hah…."

"And you must be Sonic!" The explorer grabbed Sonic's free hand, and he watched in vague surprise as she did all the work shaking it. "What brings you all the way out here? You're a great hero!"

"I was just showing him my workshop!" Tails said quickly, looking proud of himself. Sonic took his hand back from the woman and readjusted his glove. "I had a new project I wanted him to see."

Sonic shrugged, still itching to go for a run. "Couldn't miss it."

"But anyway," Tails said, "what are you all doing here? I heard there wouldn't be an expedition into the jungle for several days."

"Well, we _were_ originally going to come for the jungle," said a different explorer, who looked like the leader. He crossed his arms and leaned forward conspiratorially. "But… we found out something interesting. You see…."

The first explorer chimed in again. "We heard that a giant island from the sky crash-landed in the Mystic Ruins!"

" _Sheesh_ , Richard. You can't just go around saying crazy things like that!"

"Giant island from the sky?" Sonic said, a memory coming back to him. He and Tails exchanged a knowing look.

"I left my wife and daughter back home early to come on this expedition. What am I gonna do, lie about it?"

"They're just strange mountains that appeared out of nowhere! Not some mystical 'floating island' rubbish."

"Oh yeah, like _that_ sounds any less crazy - "

"Well, fellas," Tails said, though they hardly appeared to be listening. "We'd best get going - I have a project to show my friend, after all…."

The woman who had shaken Sonic's hand looked over cheerfully and waved. "Bye, Sonic! Bye, fox boy!"

"It's _Tails_ ," Tails muttered as they walked away toward the workshop.

"We know of a floating island already, don't we, buddy?" Sonic said, staring at the cliff face and thinking hard.

"Now that I think about it, I really don't think I've seen those mountains in the distance before. That really is strange…."

Together they began climbing the steps to the top of the hill.

"Well, we can figure that out later. Right now, I've got something really cool to show you!"

Almost vibrating with excitement, Tails bounded up the last few steps and rushed forward - then let out a yelp.

"Well, well, well… if it isn't Sonic and Tails!"

A very familiar floating vehicle was hovering in the middle of the flat hilltop, blocking the way to the workshop ahead and bearing an unmistakable figure in the pilot's seat. Sonic walked up behind Tails at a leisurely pace and put a hand on his hip, grinning, hardly surprised by this turn of events.

"Hey, look, Tails! It's a giant talking egg!"

"Silence!" the doctor snarled from behind his mustache. "I am Dr. Robotnik, the greatest and most cunning scientific genius in the world!"

Ironically, the way he puffed himself up in anger only caused him to look more egg-like by the second.

"Whatever you say, Eggman!"

" _Enough!_ " Eggman leaned forward on the front of the Egg Mobile, glaring down at Sonic and Tails. "I've been working on a grand master plan, and it's time I finally put it to work!"

"That usually means trouble, coming from you." Tails puffed up his tails behind him.

"Yeah, everyone knows you're always up to no good." Sonic raised an eyebrow, knowing how much his cocky attitude annoyed the doctor and playing it up for kicks. " _Now_ whaddaya want?"

"I _want_ the Chaos Emeralds," Eggman lowered his voice an octave and Sonic snorted. _Guess he's trying to scare us_. "And you'd better not interfere - or else!"

"Or else _what_ , ya big loser?"

Eggman grinned dangerously, fiddling with something on his control panel. "Or else I'll take them from you - the hard way!"

He slammed his hand down on a button with dramatic flair, and panels instantly opened on the side of his vehicle. Twin engines slid out of their compartments on either side and roared to life, deadly-looking spikes protruding from the front of both. Sonic barely had time to grab Tails and dodge sideways to the ground as the vehicle rushed forward, plowing through the space where they had stood just a moment before.

"Behold my latest creation," Eggman crowed as Sonic and Tails scrambled back to their feet. "The Egg Hornet!"

"Egg, huh?" Sonic said, not bothering to hide his amusement. "So you admit you _are_ an egg, then?"

"Gah!" Eggman whirled the Hornet around to face them, and Sonic saw missile chambers sliding open in the front.

"Tails, get outta here! I'll handle this!"

"No!" Tails clenched his hands into fists and held them out awkwardly. "I can help too, just watch me!"

Sonic glanced at Tails. "No offense, buddy, but this really isn't the time for - "

" _Look out!_ "

He turned and saw missiles exploding out of the front of the Hornet, heading straight for him - but at the last second he felt a pair of hands slip underneath his arms, and he was jerked up into the air, barely avoiding the blast that heated his feet from below.

"I gotcha!"

"Thanks, bro."

Tails lowered them both back to the ground a short distance away from the blast mark, and Eggman laughed. "Well, Sonic, I didn't think you needed the help of a puny fox cub to save your skin! Perhaps you're not as tough as I thought you were!"

Sonic gritted his teeth. He would have liked to respond with another taunt, but the moment was lost. The spikes on the front of the machine began to whir and spin, and the machine rose into the air, then nosedived straight at him.

"Watch out for the drills!"

Sonic rolled to the side at the last second, and watched with amusement as Eggman drilled the front of his Hornet into the ground, rendering it stuck.

"What a hunk of junk!" Sonic said, leaping into the air and curling into a ball. A few rapid strikes against the engines later, and the Egg Hornet was trashed, leaving just the base vehicle intact with a fuming Eggman inside.

"Sonic!" Tails rushed over to him, looking abashed. "I'm sorry - I hope I didn't get in the way - "

"Hey, it's no problem, pal." Sonic ruffled the fur on his head, and he laughed, looking a little happier.

"Besides, we beat him, right? He didn't even get the - "

"Chaos Emerald! AHA!"

Sonic turned in shock to see a claw attached to the still-askew Egg Mobile, dropping the purple emerald into Eggman's waiting hand.

Tails brushed a hand frantically through his fur, looking stricken. "Oh no - I must have dropped it in the fight!"

Sonic rushed forward, already reaching for the emerald, but a flash of poisonous blue in front of him sent him skidding to a halt again.

"Ah ah!" Eggman wagged a finger. "Chaos could use a little snack!"

"Chaos?"

The creature, now fully formed, only stared down at Sonic with its blank green eyes.

"Hey, that's the monster I fought yesterday!"

"Uh, monster?" Tails' voice quivered slightly.

Eggman laughed with glee and tossed the emerald. "Come on, Chaos, time to eat!"

The creature - Chaos - raised its arm, and the purple emerald sank into its liquid body. Instantly, a flash of light erupted, and Sonic flinched, throwing a hand over his eyes. "Ah, geez - !"

"Yes! _Yes!_ " Eggman's voice came from the other side of the light, and Sonic looked up to a sight that sent a shiver down his spine. "It's really happening! Just as the stone tablets said it would!"

Chaos had grown by a good foot, and strange bonelike structures had formed in the arm the Chaos Emerald had landed in. The emerald itself was nestled in the middle of the bones, and the arm had grown, leaving Sonic with the odd impression of a creature with one buff arm and one skinny one.

"Chaos' strength increases every time I feed him a Chaos Emerald!" Eggman said, that wicked smile still on his face. "All he needs is all seven emeralds in him, and he'll be invincible! Then he will turn Station Square into rubble, and on its ruins, I'll build the ultimate city - Robotnikland! I will rule it all!"

"Ugh," Sonic muttered. _This spiel again_. Out loud he called, "I dunno, I think 'Eggmanland' has a much nicer ring to it!"

"Just you wait, Sonic." Eggman's vehicle began to rise. "Your defeat is close at hand!"

Sonic prepared himself for the beast to attack, but instead Chaos melted - bones, emerald, and all - into a puddle once more, and sank into the grass underfoot. After a few seconds, there was hardly any evidence it had been there at all.

"Chaos and I are off to find another emerald," Eggman crowed from above as he flew off. "Ta-ta, boys!"

Soon Eggman was just a speck in the distance, and for a moment silence reigned.

"Sonic…."

Sonic turned to see Tails' ears drooping. "I'm sorry… I can't believe I dropped the emerald…."

He looked close to despair, and Sonic didn't want any of that. Instead, he placed a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, it's okay, buddy," he said, and Tails' ears perked up a little. "But we can't let that monster get any bigger. It could get ugly!"

Tails giggled a little. "As if it isn't already." He straightened up and ran a hand through the fur on his head. "We can't let Eggman get away with this, can we?"

"No way!" Sonic glanced up towards Tails' workshop. "There won't be time for you to show me your project, though."

"That's okay. I can show you later!" Tails ran in a circle around Sonic, suddenly reenergized. "Without more emeralds, the monster can't transform. So it's up to us to get the emeralds before Eggman does, huh?"

"Right! So where do we start?"

"Umm…."

They stood in silence for a moment, stumped. He hadn't heard any news on Chaos Emeralds in a while, and now that they'd lost their first one, tracking down another was going to be more difficult. Sonic found himself staring at an orange firefly floating nearby. _I wonder what that's doing out at this time of day_ , he thought absently, and then heard the barest echo of a voice.

" _Go to the Windy Valley_ …."

"…the Windy Valley?"

Sonic blinked. Both he and Tails had spoken at the exact same time.

"Uh… there's lots of stuff in the Windy Valley," Tails said. "It's right nearby."

"You think we could find a Chaos Emerald there?"

"Well… rings form out of excess Chaos energy." Tails glanced over the hill, looking at a crevice in the cliff face beyond. "If we go there, and find rings, there's a good bet we've found an emerald too."

"All right," Sonic said, beginning to feel pumped. This was just what he needed - a new adventure! "To the Windy Valley it is!"

* * *

 ** _Mystic Ruins - early afternoon_**

Despite Sonic's enthusiasm and easy forgiveness, Tails still felt anxious.

He'd let a Chaos Emerald slip out of his grasp, and straight into Eggman's. Sonic didn't seem too troubled, just eager to go for a run, but Tails couldn't help feeling guilty. If he made too many more slipups like that, he could put both of them - and the entirety of Station Square - in big danger.

But he kept up a brave face. He couldn't let Sonic see how doubtful he was. If he was too much of a downer, then Sonic would have no reason to want to hang out with him anymore, and….

He shook his head as he led Sonic to the crevice in the cliff face. He knew this cave, having explored once or twice what lay beyond, and now he found his excitement growing at the thought of showing it to Sonic. _He'll love it! Danger, excitement, lots of places to run_ ….

"I warn ya, they don't call it the Windy Valley for no reason." Tails stopped in front of the hole at the end of the cave. From below, strong gusts of wind blew upwards into another hole in the ceiling, and Tails knew it would get even stronger from there.

"You just have to jump in, and it'll take you to - "

"Sounds good!" Sonic rubbed his hands together and readied his stance.

 _Uh oh_ ….

"Here we GOOOO!"

Sonic leapt into the current and was sucked straight up.

"Why did I expect any different?" Tails muttered to himself, jumping in after him and using his tails to guide his ascent. He emerged above and landed lightly on the rock. On one side, the ocean glimmered far below - on the other, the cliff face continued to wind around, leaving only a narrow path leading further into the heart of the valley.

"C'mon, Tails! This is great!" Sonic beckoned happily from ahead, then took off, already gaining speed.

"Hey - wait up!"

Tails lifted off, flying as fast and far as his tails would carry him, even though he was nowhere near Sonic's speed. Here and there along the path, he could indeed see a few golden rings glittering in the weak sunlight. _We must be on the right track after all_. Sonic was racing along rickety wooden bridges and jumping headlong into invisible air currents, yelling with glee as they blew him onto a higher ledge. Several rings were already looped around his arm, Sonic scooping them up as he ran. Tails' brow furrowed in concentration as he used the gusts of wind to get higher, until he was far above Sonic's location.

He could see a trail of leaves fluttering from one ledge to the next, and realized what Sonic was about to do a split second before he did it.

"Let's go!" came his shout from below, and he sprinted straight into the current. His feet moved so fast that somehow the sheer force of the wind kept him from falling into the deep water below. Tails watched with his jaw nearly on the floor as Sonic slipped, tumbled, then landed unharmed on a lower patch of grass, already moving again.

"He should try parkour," Tails muttered under his breath, then took off again with a running start.

Tails flew over the scene, following the growing clusters of rings and keeping his eyes peeled for any sign of the distinctive glimmer of a Chaos Emerald. He was so engrossed in his search that he didn't realize he'd passed Sonic until he looked down and saw no sign of his friend.

 _Hey - I'm beating him!_ Tails pumped and fist. "Yeah!"

He turned his gaze back ahead - and his stomach dropped.

"I mean, _no!_ Tornado! TORNADO!"

 _And I don't mean the plane!_

Tails hadn't noticed the sky darkening, or the small but certainly deadly funnel cloud making its way toward the earth, but now he was in big trouble. He reversed course and whirled his tails as hard as he could, straining, but it was no use - the current was sucking him in.

"SONIC!"

Just before he disappeared into the whirlwind, he caught sight of Sonic, running at top speed, arms held back to aid his aerodynamics. "Just relax!" he yelled over the noise. "You'll be fine if you just - "

Then the roar of the tornado drowned him out.

For several heart-stopping moments Tails was battered about in the winds, curled into a ball, hugging his tails to his chest and holding on for dear life. He dared to crack open an eye, and to his astonishment caught a glimpse of Sonic, hopping from debris piece to debris piece in the center of the whirlwind in an effort to reach him.

All at once, the air cleared, and Tails felt himself dropping.

On instinct, he unfurled his tails and began to whirl them around again, stabilizing himself and controlling his descent. He gasped for breath, disoriented after such an adventure. But once his vision steadied, he looked below and his eyes widened in astonishment.

The tornado had carried them above the clouds into a brilliant blue sky, the sun beating down from overhead - and below were countless islands, floating in the air. Some were the size of a large house, others barely bigger than Tails himself. He'd only known of one floating island before this, not dozens - and every single one glimmered with golden rings.

 _If there's anywhere to find a Chaos Emerald, it's here_.

Tails touched down on one of the islands, about the size of a small car, and saw Sonic stick his landing on an island further down. He glanced up to make sure Tails was okay, flashed him a playful salute, and took off again, hopping from island to island. Determination swept over Tails.

 _And_ I'm _going to be the one to find it first!_

His tails kicked into gear again, and he rose high above the scene, scanning carefully. He touched down on island after island, circling the area and taking care not to fall, accidentally knocking a few rings off the edge. They went spiraling down into the clouds, disappearing in a puff.

Tails flew onward, suddenly sure he was close, until….

" _There!_ "

He hadn't meant to shout it, and Sonic heard him. He looked up and followed Tails' gaze until he, too, was staring at the speck of brilliant blue just ahead.

Tails launched himself forward, flying faster than he ever had before, straining until he knew he would be sore the following morning. Sonic hopped from island to island just below him… surpassing him….

Then Tails' eye caught sight of just what he needed - a trail of leaves.

He darted directly into the stream, letting the wind carry him at a speed far greater than he could ever reach on his own straight toward the emerald. "Yahoo!" he yelled in triumph.

The wind dropped him and he fell toward where the emerald lay, discarded on the grass of a large island. He dropped - stretched out his hand -

\- and another hand closed over the gem at the same time.

He and Sonic tumbled with the force of their impact, ending up in a heap on the dirt, still both clutching the emerald. They lay there and simply panted for a few moments, until Sonic broke out into breathless laughter.

"Nice… job, Tails!" he said, grinning up at the sky. Tails couldn't help laughing too.

"Well… I _almost_ won."

Sonic rolled over, letting go of the emerald so only Tails kept his grip, and winked, causing Tails to smile widely. "Let's just call it a tie."


	3. Challenge for Another Aim

**_Station Square - afternoon_**

Big was not having a good day.

He'd managed to catch a glimpse of Froggy that morning, hopping across the street and narrowly avoiding being run over by a passing car. By the time he'd reached him, however, he'd disappeared under the city via a manhole with a missing cover.

"I told maintenance we needed that fixed!" a man in a suit grumbled nearby, as Big squashed himself into the hole feet first. "Now we have giant purple cats who apparently want to go fishing in the sewers! Disgusting!"

Water was no problem for Big, but the _stench_ got to him almost immediately. Big's nose was already sensitive, and wading through the wastewater of an entire metropolis was almost too much for him to handle. He'd chased Froggy along the surprisingly spacious sewer tunnels, holding his nose all the way, and eventually caught sight of a flash of green wriggling its way under a door on an upper level.

Scrambling after Froggy had only led him to the strangest place he'd visited yet - a large pool of water, in the shape of a simple square. All around, bright flashing lights illuminated walls painted in garishly bright colors, and as a rollercoaster train full of screaming humans roared past overhead, Big caught sight of a sign next to the pool that proclaimed visitors could go "swimming with the fishes - literally!"

Underneath, a small sticker - "Closed for maintenance."

Big approached the pool, which was full of fish as advertised, and immediately caught sight of what he was looking for, distorted by the ripples in the water.

"Froggy!" he said, clapping his hands together. There was surely no better place for his wayward friend to be than in water. "But how am I supposed to get to you with all those fish in the way?"

He hefted his fishing pole experimentally. He was an expert fisher - had to be, if he wanted to eat - but he'd never actually tried to catch Froggy before. A hand slipped into a pouch on his belt and came up with one of Froggy's favorite snacks - he'd intended to give them to his friend once they'd been reunited, but he supposed they would work just as well as bait.

"Okay, buddy," he said, hooking the snack carefully and tossing the line into the water. "I'm gonna get you back!"

Over an hour later, and Big did not have Froggy back.

He'd finally managed to hook him after numerous other false catches, the fish far more interested in the snacks than Froggy seemed to be, and he'd carefully drawn him in to avoid hurting him. But just as Froggy met his hand, a voice from behind him startled him.

"Hey! You're not supposed to be in here!"

Big jumped in alarm and Froggy slid through his fingers, landing with a wet _plop_ on the concrete floor.

"Oh, no!"

He made a grab for his friend, but Froggy was already off like a shot, disappearing through the space in between the bars of a fence blocking off the pool from the rest of the park.

"You!" the voice called again as Big's ears began to droop. "This area is off limits to park guests, and you definitely don't look like a park guest!"

Big had found himself summarily thrown out of the place, which had turned out to be a theme park called Twinkle Park, and now trudged down the street, head hanging. He'd come all this way, found his friend, only to lose him again. It was certainly a little disheartening. A nearby human told him that they'd seen a strange frog with a tail hopping all the way back to the train station, which at the very least gave him a lead. _Is he avoiding me?_ Big wondered as he stepped back onto the train, passing a hedgehog and fox on their way out. _Why could he be acting so weird…?_

* * *

 ** _Station Square - evening_**

"I can't believe I almost forgot!" Tails said in excitement as he and Sonic emerged from the train station back into the light and noise of the city. "I heard recently while I was in town to pick up some supplies that they found a Chaos Emerald in the city, and put it up as a grand prize in the casino!"

Sonic rubbed his nose and looked up at the sky. The sun had just finished setting, but the sky was still painted in deep pinks and purples. "Why would they put a _Chaos Emerald_ up as a prize?"

"They must not realize its other uses," Tails said, leading the way back to the hotel resort. "It's got amazing power, but to them, it must just seem like a pretty jewel…."

A side door in the lobby led them out to the resort's main commercial center, with the casino standing at the far end as the centerpiece. With the sunset, the lights had gone up, turning the street into a neon wonderland. Vacationers and tourists crowded the area, chattering and strolling along with shopping bags in hand. Many seemed to be heading for the casino.

"Uh… how we're gonna get it is another question, though." Tails stared at the throngs of people walking for the entrance. "Looks like we might have some competition."

"No sweat!" Sonic said, moving forward and leading the way. "We'll figure it out." Despite being well below eye level for everyone in the crowd but the children, he threaded his way through easily with Tails in his wake, and slipped in through the revolving door.

A wall of noise greeted them once inside. Slot machines, poker tables… the place was huge, and it had _everything_. Even a bar, situated off to the side and crowded with laughing casino-goers. Sonic turned to Tails, whose eyes were huge as dinner plated, and grinned. "Nice place! Wonder where we should start."

"How about with pinball, my friends?"

Sonic looked up at the voice, which turned out to belong to a greeter, dressed in a garish bright red and gold suit to match the rest of the décor. "We have a special section for little fellas such as yourselves!" he said, beaming brightly. "Not many of you come around to Station Square, but I know I have yet to meet a Mobian who doesn't like our special pinball tables!"

"That sounds… uh, great," Tails said, "but we're not here to - "

" - just play around," Sonic said, cutting him off. _This might be our chance! And besides, it doesn't hurt to have some fun along the way_. "We're here to win it big!"

Tails glanced up at him, and Sonic saw him putting the pieces together.

"Now that's what I like to hear, little hedgehog!" The greeter nearly glowed with exaggerated enthusiasm.

"Yeah, we heard there was a really big gemstone here as a prize!" Tails said, matching his tone. "And there's nothing I'd like more than to get my hands on it!"

"Sharing with his big brother of course," Sonic said, giving him a little nudge, and Tails chuckled.

"Yeah, that too."

"Well, you're in luck, my friends!" the greeter said, ushering them with a hand to a side door. The room beyond wasn't as big and grand as the rest of the casino, but it was covered in the same bright golden decorations, and lights flashed everywhere. "Unfortunately, there's no other Mobians around to play with, but look on the bright side - that means less competition! Ha ha ha."

Sonic and Tails took a moment just to stare. Around the edges of the room they could see entrances to various pinball tables - regular pinball, pinball and slots, pinball and cards. And across the way, Sonic could see an important-looking door labeled "Grand Prize."

 _That's the way!_

The greeter waved cheerily behind him as the doors swung closed. "Good luck, boys!"

Sonic grinned down at Tails. "See? Piece of cake."

He followed Tails to the furthest door and stepped inside, still mesmerized by the simultaneously grand and tacky decorations of the casino.

"There it is!" Tails said, pointing upward. On a large gold-painted shelf above their heads sat a glowing white gemstone - their prize.

"I suppose I could just fly up and get it…."

Sonic shook his head. "Where's the fun in that? No need to cheat!" He looked at the sign above the emerald. _Only 400 rings needed to win the grand prize - can YOU do it?_

"And I suppose we win rings by playing pinball," Tails said, sounding less than enthused.

"Not a fan?" Sonic led the way back out and towards the closest door - pinball and cards.

"Well, I heard some rumors about the Mobian-specific pinball tables here. Apparently, when you play, _you're_ \- "

Sonic halted as he stepped through the doors. A purple and blue sign flashed above what looked like the entrance to a tube slide. _Welcome to pinball and cards, where you are the ball!_

Sonic whistled. "Well… that's a crazy idea if I ever saw one."

Tails sighed. "I tried to warn you."

"And it sounds _awesome!_ "

Tails called something behind him, but Sonic had already dived headfirst into the tube, curling tightly into a ball. He rolled blindly for several seconds, enjoying the ride, until he felt himself hit a loose spring and stop.

Uncurling just far enough to be able to look out with one eye, he saw Tails standing on a balcony above, staring out at the giant pinball table Sonic was currently on.

"You know," he called out, sounding more appreciative, "this is actually a really creative use of the generative properties of the emerald. They don't even need to waste resources on creating or purchasing coins if the emerald will produce rings for - "

"You operate the flippers, Tails! I'll do all the rollin' around!"

"…oh, brother," Tails muttered, just loud enough for Sonic to hear, and reached for something on a console in front of him.

The spring below Sonic's body began to retract, and he curled up tight again, bracing himself. A moment of tension - then it burst forward, and Sonic whooped in delight as he sped up the ramp and dropped down onto the table proper.

"We should do this more often!" he yelled as he hit a bumper and bounced wildly. "Four hundred rings, here I come!"

* * *

 ** _Station Square - late evening_**

Knuckles was exhausted. He'd been searching the city all day, all across Station Square, not giving himself time for a single break. He felt as if he might topple over any second, but determination drove him forward. He had collected five shards total - not many, on the whole, but it was a start. He would find them all yet.

The pull was currently tugging him toward the local casino, which he'd seen earlier from a distance, standing on top of a high skyscraper downtown. From there, it had simply been a large, tastelessly colorful building, but now the amount of light coming from it was nearly blinding. Knuckles squinted and grumbled under his breath. He didn't know how these humans could stand it - for him, the darkness of night was normally a welcome relief, not something to be chased away by artificial lights.

He hopped down from his perch on the roof of a shop and landed behind the casino, next to a far less glamorous back door. Here, it was far darker and more bearable. The emerald shard was close, he could sense it - but to his dismay, the pull seemed to be coming from _inside_ the casino. He sighed. _Just perfect_.

The back door was unlocked, by some brilliant stroke of fortune (not even inside and already he was getting lucky - he chuckled quietly to himself), and Knuckles slipped inside. The dim hallway beyond was short, and upon opening the door at the end, more bright light assaulted his vision.

Squinting, he managed to make out other doors all along the edges of the room, every single one advertising some form of pinball. From beyond one he could hear the sound of laughing and banging - clearly, someone was enjoying themselves on a pinball table, but the combination of light and noise was already giving Knuckles a headache. He shook his head and concentrated. The missing shard was definitely in here somewhere, but how could it have ended up inside a building?

Looking up, Knuckles noticed a plethora of tacky decorations - pirates, golden lions - but mercifully, most of the upper level seemed to be shrouded in darkness. He leapt up, digging his fists into the walls and climbing until he reached the top, and stepped onto rough wood that clearly was not meant to be seen from the casino-goers' perspective below. The pull was faintly stronger up here; Knuckles looked up to the ceiling and noticed a seam. A skylight? A way to the outside via the roof? Whatever it was, it must have been open when the emerald shattered, allowing the shard to fall in.

"Well, that explains that," he muttered.

He began to pace the perimeter of the upper level, avoiding the dancing pirate animatronics that blocked his path and dodging as the golden lion tapped its paw down onto the spot he'd been standing a moment before. The pull suddenly grew stronger next to one of the pirate ships, and he stopped, glancing upwards.

 _Up there?_

Knuckles pulled himself up over the edge of the ship and began to shimmy up its mast, the pull's strength increasing by the second. He was just about to wonder where the shard could possibly be this far up when he noticed a tiny crow's nest partially hidden in the shadows, at the very top of the mast. He scrambled up, squeezing into the small space - barely even big enough for someone his size, clearly meant to be viewed from below - and felt something clink against his shoe.

The shard!

He picked it up, rolling it around in his palm before taking out another shard and placing them together. They emitted a dim glow as they touched, and Knuckles nodded in satisfaction. He was just lucky it had landed up here and not somewhere more obvious, or it might be included in some lucky casino-goer's winnings by now.

"Six down, who knows how many more to go," he sighed, tucking the shard away for safekeeping. He leapt down from his perch, shoes thudding heavily onto the wood as he landed, and was readying himself to drop to the ground floor and exit the casino through the back door when a small orange spark lit up in front of him, hovering in the air.

Thinking it a decorative gimmick, he tried to brush it aside, but it began to spin rapidly around him. "Gah! What?" he said, as the light became brighter and brighter and his surroundings disappeared in a flash of white….

* * *

 ** _Station Square casino district - late evening_**

Meanwhile, no one had noticed Sonic and Tails sneaking out the same back door.

"I knew we could get it!" Tails bounced as he walked, the white emerald clutched tightly in his hand. Sonic may have been the one down on the pinball table, but Tails was the one who had directed him around via the flippers. They'd won it together, and for the moment, he felt redeemed.

Sonic, for his part, swaggered along looking very pleased with himself. _At least he had fun in there_ , Tails thought, amused.

They'd chosen to exit out the back way to avoid being mobbed by crowds. The moment Tails' hand had touched the emerald, loud ringing and music had gone off across the entire casino, signaling a jackpot, and they knew that no crowd would be able to resist gathering around and blocking their way when the winner was someone so famous. And both Tails and Sonic would rather not have their find advertised to everyone within a five-mile radius.

"We only have four more left to find, don't we?" Tails said as they rounded a corner.

A sudden low humming noise was his only warning - something smacked into the back of his head, sending him tumbling forward painfully onto the pavement. He felt himself lose his grip on the emerald, and sat up slowly, shaking his head in a daze.

"Ow…."

"Oh ho ho!" A familiar voice was laughing behind him. "Did you boys really think I would miss a chance to see the big win at the casino?"

Tails opened his eyes and caught sight of the white gem lying discarded on the pavement. "The emerald!" He scrambled for it, Sonic doing the same on his other side.

"Oh, no you don't!"

Eggman's vehicle dropped down in front of him just before he could reach it. He gasped and tasted something strange on the air. Everything seemed to be turning rather… purple.

"Nighty-night, boys!"

The spray from the front of the Egg Mobile ceased, but already Tails could feel its effects in his system. His limbs were growing weak, and a sluggish glance to the side told him that Sonic's eyes were already drooping.

He tried his hardest to move, to do something, but he could barely even lift a finger, let alone his arm. A claw extended from the vehicle, closing over the emerald, and then Eggman was off, his maniacal laughter echoing through the alley where Tails and Sonic were rapidly losing consciousness.

"Egg…man…."

He didn't feel his head hit the ground.

* * *

 ** _Unknown location - unknown time_**

Slowly, the light faded from Knuckles' vision, and he opened his eyes again.

And gaped.

The casino was gone; he stood on squarish, roughly cut cobblestones, and directly in front of him was a massive stone temple in the shape of a pyramid. It rose tall and proud in the center of a plethora of similar stone buildings, all carved over with strange markings he couldn't decipher. The sun shone brightly over the scene, despite the fact that in Station Square it had just turned to night.

"Where in the world am I?" he muttered, taking in the sights. He had the strangest feeling in his gut, as though he had somehow seen this place before, even though he knew he had never been here before in his life. Even the air was strange to him - bright, new, as though it had never before been breathed by another living being.

Knuckles stepped forward cautiously, looking over the edge of the hill he seemed to be standing on, and gasped. Below him, walking the cobblestoned streets around the temple, were…

…people like him.

Echidnas. Had he ever seen another echidna in his life? He had always assumed he was the last one left - the last echidna, last of the Knuckles clan, having taken his family name as his _only_ name, one last testament to their importance throughout history. But here, before him… there were so many! Dressed in bright beads, tastefully dyed clothing, strips of cloth wrapped around their quills.

He hurried down the stone steps to the path below and stepped up to one, a purplish echidna wearing nothing but long strings of wooden beads. He cleared his throat. "Hello, I'm…."

She didn't even look at him, just kept walking.

"Hello?"

Knuckles looked around and realized that everyone in the crowd seemed to be ignoring him, as if he didn't even exist. They couldn't see him, couldn't hear him.

 _Is this a dream?_

He began to pace thoughtfully around the central temple, taking everything in. The buildings still seemed familiar somehow, though he couldn't put his finger on _why_. It wasn't until he reached the opposite side of the temple that something else drew his eye.

Two echidnas stood out from the rest - a dark red one with white whiskers, dressed in noticeably more rich clothing that the others, and a small peachy orange one wearing some kind of circlet. Her hands were clasped in front of herself and she appeared to be pleading with the red one, who was shaking his head. Knuckles walked closer, eager to hear what they were saying.

"Father, please don't!" the orange one was wailing.

The red one - the chief? - closed his eyes. "Tikal," he began, in a tone that said they had argued about this many times before, "the seven emeralds are essential to our survival. It is for the good of _all_ our people."

"How can I make you understand?" Tikal stamped her foot in frustration, and Knuckles could see a tear forming in the corner of her eye. "Attacking other countries, stealing and killing, _can't_ be the right path to peace! No one has the right to take their holy grounds!"

She moved closer and placed a hand on the chief's shoulder. "I beg you, father!"

The chief sighed. "Tikal…."

The last word echoed in Knuckles' head, growing louder and louder as the scene brightened. Once more, white light overtook his vision….

* * *

 ** _Station Square casino district - night_**

A few seconds later, his surroundings rematerialized.

Knuckles was back outside the casino's back door, as though nothing had happened. _Did I hallucinate all that?_ For a moment panic gripped him, but when he checked, the six shards were still on his person, safe and sound.

He stood still for a moment in the warm air of a summer's night, trying to process what he had just seen. An entire civilization of echidnas just like him. Was it true? Did they really exist out there somewhere? Or was it just a strange dream?

He could have stood and contemplated such a thought all night, but instead he shook himself mentally. He didn't have time to be getting lost in sentiment and imagination. Whatever that had been, he could figure it out later - once he'd finished his immediate job.

Tucking the shards away again, Knuckles started forward along the alley. He rounded a corner and found himself immediately brought up short by another strange sight.

Sonic and Tails, of all people, were lying on the ground in the middle of the alleyway. Furrowing his brow in confusion, he approached the pair. They didn't look injured - in fact, they looked fast asleep. He noticed a human girl standing nearby at the same time she noticed him; he cocked an eyebrow in her direction, and she shrugged. "They're taking a nap, I guess," she said, as though this was a perfectly normal occurrence for her.

Knuckles shook his head helplessly. It must have been nearly two years by now since he'd seen these two, and now that he finally encountered them once again, they were as strange as ever.

Well, perhaps he'd see them tomorrow, once they were finished with taking naps in back alleys behind casinos. Putting it out of his mind, he kept walking, despite beginning to feel very unsteady on his feet. He'd pushed himself too hard today - he'd made a lot of progress, but he wouldn't get much further in finding the shards if his body gave out under him from exhaustion. He needed to find a place to get some sleep himself.

He was far too tired to be climbing skyscrapers again, and there was no reason to do so anyway if no one had spied him trespassing, so instead he trudged out of the casino district through the most obvious route available to him - the nearby hotel lobby. The warm light of the interior was odd to him, having spent most of his life outdoors, and he glanced up - and stopped in his tracks.

The lobby was empty apart from himself, a dozing hotel manager at the desk… and of all people, Eggman.

The doctor was tiptoeing into the elevator at the far end of the lobby, and when he turned around, Knuckles saw that he was looking immensely pleased with himself - and something glimmered in his hand just as the doors began to slide shut.

 _A piece of the Master Emerald!_

"Hold it!" he shouted, racing across the lobby as fast as his tired legs would carry him. "Come back here!"

Knuckles' palms slammed against the doors just as they slid fully shut and the floor counter began to tick upward. He growled in frustration and hit the buttons next to it frantically, even as he watched the light above the doors indicating it was heading all the way to the top floor.

"Hey buddy," a sleepy voice called from behind him. "Could you keep it down? Some people are trying to sleep in here."

"It wouldn't be a problem if your dozing hadn't let a thieving maniac into the building," Knuckles snarled without turning around, still pushing buttons.

"Sounds like you need to relax, man. Take a trip up to the hotel chao garden upstairs, it'll do you some good."

Finally the doors slid open once more, and Knuckles nearly hit the opposite wall inside jumping in. He hammered the button labeled "close." Eggman was not going to get away with a shard just because of a stupid, slow hotel elevator….

Three floors… two… one….

 _Ding!_

* * *

 ** _Station Square casino district - night_**

Slowly, much too slowly, things began to swim back into focus.

Tails couldn't remember the last time he'd felt so dizzy. For that matter, he was having trouble remembering _anything_ clearly. Such as why he, and Sonic as well from the looks of it, were lying on the dirty floor in a back alley behind a casino.

"Urgh," he groaned. Next to him, Sonic was already struggling to his feet, weaving back and forth trying to retain his balance.

Tails forced himself to focus. They'd won something… several hundred rings… and a glimmering white gem….

"Sonic… what happened to the Chaos Emerald we just had?"

Sonic had a hand pressed against the nearby wall, steadying himself. He reached behind him and pulled out another emerald - the blue one - and studied it, his eyes slightly unfocused. "Ahh… I guess Eggman got one of them, but this one's safe. That guy must be desperate, gassing us like that."

Tails pushed himself to his feet, his heart sinking as his head began to clear fully. "He got the one I dropped… again."

His friend rested his head against the wall with his eyes closed. "I told you not to worry about it before."

"But now I've dropped two emeralds! That's Eggman's two to our one, and that's not good."

"Yeah…." Sonic sounded as if he was choosing his words carefully. "But since when do we ever let ol' Egghead win? We just have to get the rest of the emeralds before he does."

 _And not let me drop them_ , Tails finished silently.

Sonic shook his head, focus returning fully to his eyes. The effects of the knockout gas must be short-lived, Tails observed - just long enough for Eggman to make his escape. Only a few minutes seemed to have passed, and he was feeling clearer by the second. "He probably flew far away from here… back to the Mystic Ruins, maybe."

Sonic nodded and gave him a thumbs-up. "Then we'd better get back there!"

 _And maybe I can get some_ actual _sleep on the train_ , Tails thought, realizing just how leaden he was feeling after the day's events.

So together, still slightly wobbly, they turned and began to head back for the station.

* * *

 ** _Station Square hotel - night_**

As soon as the elevator doors slid open Knuckles stalked out, poised for a fight.

The room was circular, with a roof of glass revealing the starry sky above. Tables and chairs were shoved up against the walls, blocked off by velvet rope - clearly this was some sort of reserved dining area, currently not in use, leaving the central area open. But the only thing Knuckles was concerned with was the round form of the doctor standing at the far end, inspecting something in his hand.

"Eggman!" His voice came out rough, angry. "Give me back the Master Emerald shard you have!"

Eggman started and turned. He didn't seem to have anticipated company. "Kn-Knuckles!" he said, eyebrows flying up into what would have been his hairline, if he'd had hair. "The Master Emerald, you say? I can assure you then, _this_ isn't what you're after."

He held up his hand, and balanced casually between two fingers sat not a shard… but a whole white gem. A Chaos Emerald.

Knuckles unclenched his fists. "Huh… you're right." He could have left - continued his search - but he hesitated. Eggman may not have stolen a shard after all, but still, was it a good idea to let him walk around freely with a Chaos Emerald…?

As if in response to his thoughts, the doctor began to snicker, baring his teeth in an unpleasant grin. "That's okay, though. As long as you're here, I can use you as a guinea pig to test it!"

Knuckles raised his fists again, slowly.

The doctor raised his arms, holding the gem up high. "Oh, Chaos!" he said in a singsong tone.

"Chaos?"

Then Knuckles noticed a watery puddle on the ground next to Eggman. It grew… rose, took form… and he found himself staring at a familiar liquid figure. It was slightly taller now, and one arm was filled with what looked almost like bones, but the eerie green eyes were unmistakable.

Knuckles growled. "That creature! The same one I saw on my island! The one who shattered the Master Emerald - "

Eggman was snickering again, and Knuckles gritted his teeth.

"You saved me the trouble of looking for him," he spat.

Eggman only gave him another nasty smile, and tossed the white emerald into the air, where it sank into Chaos' body. It lit up white for a split second, Knuckles shielded his eyes, and when the light faded and his eyes readjusted he could see that Chaos had… transformed. Now _both_ arms were filled with those bonelike structures, an emerald nestled within each, and its head had grown what looked like three strange horns in a T shape. The creature had grown to almost three times Knuckles' size, hunched over, hulking and looking decidedly ready for a fight.

"Way to go, Chaos!" Eggman said, clapping his hands together once gleefully.

"Changing shape won't scare me," Knuckles said, readying himself. "Give it your best shot!"

The creature's eyes narrowed, and as Eggman stepped back amongst the tables, it began to melt, even its bones. Instead of becoming a puddle like the first time, it swelled into a single, spherical ball of gel, and bounced directly toward Knuckles.

He dodged to the side, rolling easily back to his feet, but it didn't continue forward - it bounced itself off a wall and came toward him again, relentless. Knuckles ran around the edge of the room, looking for an opening, some way to attack, but the space was small for a fight, and when he turned around again he didn't have time to evade.

"Agh!" For looking like water, it had the striking power of a boxing glove. The blow to his face knocked him back several feet, sending him sprawling painfully on his back. The sound of Eggman's laughter echoed around the marble walls, and Knuckles glared at Chaos from the floor as it reverted back to its original shape, holding his nose where it had struck.

"You're no match for it, Knuckles! Chaos only grows stronger with the power of each emerald!"

"Not strong enough to defeat me!" With a loud roar, he pushed himself back to his feet and launched himself forward, aiming his fist squarely into the creature's body.

Just before he made contact, its arm came up and smacked him in the side, hard, sending him tumbling over again.

 _I can't even hurt it!_ Thoughts raced through his head in a blur. He was already exhausted from a day of hard searching - he couldn't fight for long in this state.

He looked up. Chaos had already shaped itself back into a ball. When it bounced, he rolled away, backing up against the far wall. He waited as it bounced closer… closer… then darted to the side at the last second, causing it to hit the wall and bounce off course.

"Hah!" This time his fist connected. Chaos bounced once more, unsteadily, and then splashed back down into a puddle.

Knuckles began to raise a fist in triumph, but a second later it had reformed itself, back on its feet and looking none the worse for wear.

 _Can I even damage something made out of liquid?_

As he stared the creature down, he noticed….

Not all of it was made of liquid. There were the bones… and the free-floating brain nestled in what passed for its head. _I wonder_ ….

He rushed Chaos again, this time prepared to dodge its counter-blow, and punched a fist into its body. As he expected, it bounced back like hitting rubber. But as he ducked under its retaliatory strike, he aimed a second punch at the brain. This time the spikes on his mitts managed to puncture through, and the creature let out a pained gurgle.

"No!" Eggman yelled.

 _Yes!_

As Chaos began to melt into a sphere for a third time, Knuckles ran backward and punched a fist into a marble column. He climbed, reaching the top just as Chaos bounced toward him, and with a yell, leapt directly on top of it, striking hard. It wavered around in a frenzy, and Knuckles struggled to stay on top, slipping on the strange liquid mass.

As soon as it began to reform into its humanoid shape, Knuckles bunched downward one final time with all his might, directly into its brain.

An unearthly howl echoed through the room. Knuckles rolled off the creature and back onto solid ground just before it dissolved. This time, it stayed a disorganized puddle on the floor.

Knuckles straightened up beside it, trying to hide how heavily he was breathing, and gave Eggman a satisfied smirk.

"Bah!" Eggman slammed his fist down onto a nearby table and stepped forward stiffly. "So what if you won this time?"

"I'd say those are just the words of a sore loser." Knuckled crossed his arms.

"You have yet to see the _true_ powers of Chaos!"

"Yeah, yeah." Knuckles waved a hand at him dismissively. "That still doesn't faze me, you hear?"

Eggman's demeanor changed suddenly. He smirked, and tapped a finger against his mustache. "Oh… but I know something that might."

Knuckles just stared in suspicion.

"It's about Sonic."

"What?" Knuckles lowered his arms slowly. "What about Sonic?"

Eggman grinned and began to turn back toward the elevator. "Maybe you should have been chasing him instead. He's after the pieces of the Master Emerald, too."

"What do you mean?"

Eggman sighed, then turned back around, waving his arms in irritation. "You're not the only one on a wild goose chase, idiot! Why should I ruin your surprise? Go ask him yourself if you're so curious."

"Wait!" Knuckles called as Eggman stepped into the elevator, but as the doors closed, he couldn't find the drive to chase him. He stared after him for a long time, watching the light above the elevator tick through all the floors back to the ground, thinking to himself.

Could it be true? The last time Knuckles had seen Sonic - well, conscious anyway - they'd parted on good terms. He was having trouble believing that Sonic could so easily turn on him… but Sonic was flighty and fickle, and he couldn't think of a reason the doctor would have to lie about such a thing….

"Ahh," he said, frustration welling up inside him. He was exhausted, and not in a mood to deliberate at the moment. He'd find Sonic in the morning - knowing him, he wouldn't even be in the alley anymore, already rushing off on another grand adventure. And once he had found him, he would get his answers.

But right now, he needed to get some sleep.


	4. Fight for My Own Way

**_Mystic Ruins workshop - morning_**

The morning dawned brightly over the Mystic Ruins, where Sonic and Tails had spent the night. They had taken the train during the night, and spent the last few hours before sunrise sleeping in Tails' workshop. Sonic had been eager to rush off immediately, his boundless energy holding back any semblance of exhaustion, but Tails wasn't as hardy and had managed to convince him that it would be fruitless to search for any emeralds in the dark. Sonic had reluctantly agreed, and Tails had been secretly relieved, having purposefully neglected to remind him that since the emeralds tended to give off a faint glow when in close proximity, searching in the dark wouldn't have been a real problem. But the lie of omission had allowed him to get a few hours' solid rest - and Sonic as well. Tails sometimes thought he pushed himself too hard.

He kept Sonic in the upper room of the ship as casually as he could. He still had his surprise to spring, and he wanted to save it for a time when Sonic could fully appreciate it.

Now that the morning had come, he and Sonic stood on the hilltop, in the same spot where they had fought the Egg Hornet just yesterday.

"So where to next, Sonic?"

Sonic rubbed his hands together eagerly. "Well, there's gotta be more emeralds deeper in the ruins, right? Somewhere in the jungle, or beyond - or even in the caves!" He pointed across the way, where Tails could see a few explorers crowding around a hole in the side of the cliff face.

He frowned. _Strange. I don't remember that being there before_ ….

Aloud he said, "I'm not exactly an expert on the surrounding areas. I mostly stick around the workshop, to be honest. Finding Windy Valley was more of a lucky break."

"Well then," Sonic said, and Tails could almost hear his metaphorical engine revving, "I say the caves!"

Tails knew Sonic - as Sonic dug his feet into the ground, Tails was already hovering above, flying forward at a good pace. He didn't even have time to greet the explorers, as Sonic flew past in a blur with a quick "Bye!" Tails shrugged at their shocked expressions - they likely hadn't even been able to discern what the shape was - and took off into the cave behind his best friend.

* * *

 ** _Mystic Ruins - late morning_**

Knuckles leaned against one of the wooden columns underneath the Mystic Ruins train platform. He felt better here, the wild natural beauty of the place feeling more familiar to him than the bustle of the city, but what Eggman had said to him the night before still nagged at the back of his mind.

"I wonder why Sonic is after the Master Emerald?" he murmured to himself, lost in thought as he stared out at the sea. He and Sonic had been adversaries once, sure, but they'd made up… or so he'd thought. Could the past couple of years have changed Sonic's mind? Was he no longer the hero everyone saw him as?

He knew he had to figure this out soon, but he had no idea where Sonic was - he'd checked the alley where he'd found Sonic and Tails asleep, but by the time he got there they had disappeared, just as he'd thought. And right now, he could feel the faint tug that meant another emerald shard was close. Somewhere to the north… he stood up straight and began to walk carefully toward the nearby cliff face, letting his senses guide his steps. When he reached the rock wall, he paused and looked up. Beyond this was where Angel Island had crashed down. Could some of the pieces have fallen back onto the island, rather than the mainland? It was a big island, after all.

Knuckles located the opening he'd dug through the cliff face that first night when the emerald had shattered, a quick shortcut between the island and the ruins, and entered, ignoring the few humans nearby who seemed surprised at his appearance. On the floor, two sets of footprints stood out to him - neither of them his own, both heading toward Angel Island. They looked recent, and Knuckles picked up his pace. Was someone trying to invade his island? There was nothing for them to steal any longer, not with the Master Emerald in pieces, but the thought of people roaming around his home without his permission still made him uneasy.

The tunnel ended in a field of grass, and he halted. He'd never be able to follow the footprints in grass this thick - if he found the intruders now, it would be by good old fashioned intuition. From here, looking outward, he could just make out the Master Emerald's altar in the distance. It looked empty, almost peaceful… but wrong without the emerald sitting at the top. He sighed, and then felt the tug again. It was stronger here, coming from somewhere on his right. He glanced up. That was where Red Mountain was… the mostly-inactive volcano of Angel Island, about a mile away from the altar. It wasn't the largest mountain Angel Island had to offer, but it was certainly the most dangerous. Knuckles couldn't say he liked the idea of dancing around pools of boiling magma in search of more shards, but if they'd fallen in the mouth of the volcano, then that's where he had to go.

Sparing one last glance at the altar, he turned and headed for the mountain looming over the landscape.

 ** _Icecap slope - late morning_**

Sonic and Tails, meanwhile, had ended up on the slopes of an entirely different mountain.

Sonic was having the time of his life. Tails, not so much.

"Yeah!" Sonic yelled, whooping and pumping his fist as Tails screamed in terror behind him. They'd been drawn here by the discovery of scattered rings, which became more plentiful as they entered a series of caves in the side of a rocky cliff. Things had become colder and icier as they traversed upward, until they had neared the peak. Tails had been following the rings and the faint glow of the blue emerald, guiding them to the location of its cousin, but Sonic, as usual, began to tire of the slow searching.

"C'mon, Tails!" he'd yelled, sprinting up the side of an icy wall (nearly slipping on the way up) and hearing the whirring of his friend's twin tails as he tried to keep up in the air. They had emerged from their cave onto a rocky outcropping at the peak, overlooking a steep slope that from here seemed neverending - covered in tightly packed virgin snow and glittering in the morning light. Evergreen trees scattered here and there served to break up the landscape a little, and rings shimmered in small groups and lines, providing a splash of color among the endless white.

Tails whistled. "I gotta admit… this is real pretty, Sonic."

And that was when Sonic had made his big mistake.

He'd only wanted to see how far his voice could carry in such a huge, empty space. It was, in his opinion, an entirely innocent desire. But a white-gloved hand had slapped over his mouth, and as he turned to look at its owner, whose blue eyes were wide in shock, he'd suddenly remembered what could happen when loud noises met snowy mountaintops.

Which was how they had come to be snowboarding away on scraps of wood pulled up from a nearby rickety fence, as a huge avalanche chased them down the slope with a deafening roar.

Sonic didn't mind. He lived for this kind of rush - as he sometimes joked to Tails, danger was his middle name. Tails, on the other hand, was a bit more level-headed, and still young. And clearly terrified.

"Just stay next to me!" Sonic called back over his shoulder as the roar of the avalanche grew, more snow piling into it the further it chased them. Another cave ahead caught his eye - narrow entrance, rocky overhang up top. Perfect. If anything could get them away from this deadly snowfall….

He bent his knees, reducing his wind resistance to slide even faster, and pointed. " _Tails!_ There!"

He heard Tails give a wavering yell of affirmation that only increased in pitch as they raced closer and closer to the cave entrance, flecks of snow pecking at their legs from behind -

\- and barely a second after they entered, the howling of the wind through the icy cave was replaced with a thunderous crash as all the built-up snow in the avalanche slammed into the rock behind them with full force.

"Yes!" Tails screamed in overwhelming relief, and Sonic saw a flash of yellow on his right - he'd managed to catch up after all. Then he saw something else that demanded his immediate attention.

"Watch out!"

Sonic swerved and narrowly avoided being skewered by a giant icicle crashing down into the ice of the cave floor. All around them, the cave shuddered from the impact of the avalanche, sending icicle after icicle plummeting toward them. Tails yelped and skidded to avoid one, and together he and Sonic continued their mad slide to the bottom of the mountain.

Daylight shone up ahead. In another second, they'd exited the cave back onto the main slope. It was still huge, still steep, and apart from a few scattered trees, nearly empty. For a second time seemed to hang as Sonic took it all in, spreading his arms wide.

He hadn't felt like their adventure had truly begun until this moment. The running around, the battles against Eggman's latest creations - that was all well and good. But _this_ \- just the pure rush of a slide down a mountain slope, his best friend at his side, the thrill of the race - _this_ was what he had been looking for. Something truly amazing.

His train of thought was interrupted as the slope steepened, and he and Tails really began to pick up speed.

"Race you!" Sonic called to his right, wondering if Tails could even hear him over the rush of the wind in his ears, and crouched even lower. Sonic was heavier, but Tails was smaller, and had the advantage of his tails to push him along. Sonic swerved around a corner, spotting a bare bit of rock that ended at a cliff, and aimed straight for it. The wood of his makeshift board scraped against the rock, and he jumped as it hit the edge. With the slope rushing by below him, he took the opportunity to spin around a few times, unable to resist showing off while he could.

As he fell back toward the snow-covered slope, he noticed a faint glimmer of green ahead, much more vivid than the trees around it, nestled in the snow at the bottom of the next slope.

 _The emerald!_

Hitting the ground once more, he ignored the next rocky outcropping, making a straight shot for the emerald. A scraping noise made his ear prick up, and he glanced over. His eyes widened. Tails had hit the next rock ramp after all, imitating Sonic's previous stunt. But at the top of his arc, instead of pulling a similar trick, he flattened his ears against his head, leaned forward, and spun his tails at top speed, propelling him forward until he'd passed Sonic.

"All right Tails!" Sonic yelled, a grin splitting his face. By the time he skidded to a stop at the bottom of the slope, Tails was already there, pulling the emerald out of the snow and panting heavily.

"Sonic… I did… it!" he gasped, holding it up weakly in triumph. Then he bent over, smiling widely. "And I… beat you."

"Awesome job!"

Tails tossed him the emerald, and he caught it on the tip of his finger, spinning it a couple times before letting it fall into his palm.

"That's… two we have now," Tails said, pulling out the blue one and tossing it over as well. "And you should probably hold onto them - I don't have the best grip…."

"Sure, I'll hold onto 'em," Sonic said, tucking them away. _I suppose he does have a point_ …. He glanced around, realizing that this place was beginning to give him the strangest sense of déjà vu. "Hey… Tails… haven't we been here before?"

Tails straightened up and looked around the mountainside. For a moment he looked confused, then comprehension dawned on his face. "Wait… this is - "

"Icecap," Sonic finished for him, mentally retracing their steps back to this place and realizing he found them familiar. "We're on Angel Island."

* * *

 ** _Icecap caves - noon_**

In a cave not too far from where the two friends had landed, Big was fishing. Again.

He had chased Froggy all over the Mystic Ruins until he was thoroughly exhausted, and still hadn't managed to catch his friend. And to make matters worse, he'd led Big on a wild goose chase straight to the side of this mountain and leapt into a pool of water that was all but completely frozen over. Big had only a tiny hole through which he could fish, and he could barely see anything, not the least how deep the pool might go.

Three fish lay on the ice next to him, one still giving the occasional weak flop. Those would be lunch later, he supposed, but they weren't his true quarry.

"Come on, little buddy," Big said, giving the pole a little shake in tired frustration.

Something bit, and he began to reel it in without much hope. _Probably just another fish_. But as the lure broke the water's surface and he saw the familiar flash of green, he lit up.

"Froggy!"

He was ready this time. He yanked the line upwards, and Froggy sailed straight into his outstretched hands. Big clamped down tight so he couldn't slip away again and laughed with relief.

"Hey little buddy, I found you!" Grinning from ear to ear, he stood back up with his fishing pole tucked underneath his arm. Froggy struggled madly in his grip, and Big's smile changed into a frown. "What's wrong with you? You've been acting so strange lately…."

Froggy just croaked in a frenzy.

"Are you hurt?" Big turned back toward the cave entrance. "We'd better get you home so we can figure out what's wr-oooaaahh!"

His foot slipped on the ice, and down he went. Big's back hit the ground with a wet _thump_. Sitting on the ice for so long must have left it half-melted and very slippery. Shaking his head to clear it, he realized that his hands were empty.

"Ow…" he groaned, sitting up and rubbing his back. Big scanned the area, but a quick glance was all he needed to see that Froggy had disappeared once more.

"This is getting out of hand," he muttered. He scooped up his catches and stood back up, setting out in search of his friend once more.

* * *

 ** _Mystic Ruins - early afternoon_**

Three more shards down, and Knuckles had hunted around all morning until he was certain there were no more left on Angel Island. He'd amassed quite a collection by now, and was beginning to feel good about himself. If he kept this pace up, he could have all the pieces in just a day or two, figure out a way to restore the emerald to its whole state, and be able to put this incident behind him.

In fact, he was feeling so good that he was almost able to ignore the nagging thought at the back of his mind until he exited the tunnel back into the cliffside area of the Mystic Ruins and caught sight of Sonic and Tails standing near a waterfall. Knuckles folded his arms, remaining unnoticed for the moment, and regarded them. They looked as though they were discussing something in an uncharacteristically serious manner, and as Knuckles peered closer, he realized he could see something glimmering in Sonic's hand - something green.

"Eggman was right," he breathed, anger rising up in him again. "He has no right to have that!"

If Sonic was stealing his emerald pieces… then he'd get what was coming to him. Knuckles would make sure of it.

He strode up, hands already balled into fists at his side.

Tails noticed him first. "Hey, it's Knuckles!" he said, peering around Sonic.

Sonic turned and waved cheerily with the hand holding the emerald shard. Knuckles glared in a fury. _He's taunting me!_ "Yo, Knuckles!" he said, grinning. Just the man we were hoping to see.

"I'll just bet," Knuckles growled, pounding a fist into his palm.

Sonic cocked an eyebrow. "You okay, buddy?"

"Don't play games with me!" _Playing dumb… how stupid does he think I am?_ "Give me all the emeralds you have, Sonic! _Now!_ "

"What?" Tails said, gaping at him.

"What's this all about, Knuckles?" Sonic said, holding the shard back and extending a hand cautiously. "Thought we were friends since that last incident. Or did you change your mind?"

"I thought we were too," Knuckles said, stepping closer, "but I guess a lot can change in two years. Now hand. Them. Over!"

"That's not happening, buddy." Sonic spun the shard around on the tip of his finger before stowing it away.

"Last chance!"

" _No_ chance!" Sonic put his fists up as well, still with that infuriating grin on his face. "You want 'em, you take 'em!"

"Uh, guys," Tails said hesitantly, but Knuckles had already taken the offensive.

He threw all his strength behind a punch aimed at Sonic's head, but Sonic was quick. All Knuckles saw was a blur, and jumped on instinct, avoiding the sweep of a red-sneakered foot underneath his own. He twisted around and elbowed backward, but hit empty air - Sonic was already standing a few feet away, looking smug.

"Too slow!"

Knuckles roared in a fury and leapt at him, attacking again from above. This time Sonic deflected the blow to the side and delivered one of his own straight to Knuckles' chest. It hurt, but Knuckles was sturdy enough to absorb the punch with little more than a grunt.

"Guys, if you'll just listen - "

Knuckles ignored the sound of Tails' voice and brought his knee up, which Sonic wasn't expecting - it hit him directly in the stomach, and his eyes popped open as the breath was knocked out of him. He stumbled back, looking genuinely irritated now, and Knuckles flashed him a smug grin of his own.

"Now hand over the emeralds, or - "

A ball of yellow fluff slammed into him from the side and Knuckles hit the ground, gasping in surprise. Something grabbed his wrists and he realized Tails was sitting on him, trying to pin his arms to the ground. "Knuckles, stop it!" he yelled.

"No!"

Knuckles rolled, easily dislodging him and sending him sprawling. A small gloved hand closed once again around Knuckles' wrist as he stood, but he yanked it away and Tails yelped in frustration.

Sonic took the moment of distraction to attack again, aiming a flying kick at Knuckles' midsection, but he sidestepped and gave him a hard shove from behind. Sonic flailed, unbalanced, and faceplanted directly into the nearby cliff face.

"Emeralds! Now!"

Sonic spun in time to see Knuckles flying at him again, fist at the ready, and braced his back against the wall. It was Knuckles' turn to gasp for air as his foot slammed directly into his stomach.

As he doubled over in pain, Sonic leapt over him, with a front flip for style. Knuckles spun - he was standing near the lake, hands on his hips. "Had enough yet?" he said.

Knuckles closed his eyes. Sonic was _not_ going to steal his emerald shards and then make fun of him, not even a five-minute from his grounded island. He wouldn't have it!

With a loud battle cry, all the grief and anger of losing the Master Emerald behind it, Knuckles charged him just as Sonic did the same.

They collided in a painful clash of spiked fists and sharp spines, and fell to the ground in a heap.

Sonic wriggled free first, sitting up, and Knuckles could see him feeling around behind him. His eyes widened in alarm. "Oh no!"

"The Chaos Emeralds!" came Tails' voice. His yellow form came into view, scrambling for the lake.

 _Wait_ \- Chaos - _?_

Maniacal laughter echoed around the area as Knuckles and Sonic scrambled back to their feet. Tails yelped as Eggman's vehicle rose from the lake hollow, colliding with his nose. Before anyone could react, two claws extended from the front and grabbed the two shining gems lying on the ground, lifting them directly into Eggman's waiting hands.

"Ha! Like taking candy from a baby. You bumbling idiots are too easy!"

Knuckles stared at the emeralds, only one of which was green, the other a dark blue, and felt himself slowly flushing.

"Those were… _Chaos_ Emeralds?"

 _Uh oh_ ….

"That's right, fool!" Eggman's mustache twitched as he flashed Knuckles a self-satisfied smirk. "You made it all too easy."

"Oh, Knuckles." Sonic groaned next to him. "Don't tell me you let him trick you again."

"Me?" Knuckles hissed, trying to hide how embarrassed he felt. "What about _you?_ "

"Way to go, Knucklehead - "

"And now I have four lovely emeralds," Eggman said in glee, gazing down at the three of them. "Here, Chaos!"

Knuckles noticed it first - the turquoise puddle growing in size by the second next to the Egg Mobile.

"Hey - watch it!" he said as it began to take shape. "He's gonna - "

Eggman tossed the emeralds almost nonchalantly, the gems sinking into the creature's hulking form. "Eat up!"

The three were blinded by a familiar flash, and when it cleared, Chaos could hardly be recognized as the same beast.

Its legs had disappeared; its body was now an oddly shaped blob, sitting flat on the grass. Arms even longer than its torso extended out from its sides, and those strange bones had grown until they were present throughout its entire form. It still had a head, and that same pink brain, but its new appearance sent a chill down Knuckles' spine.

 _None of that can be natural_.

"Now look what he is!" Tails stared up at Chaos, which was easily five times his size, in obvious alarm.

Sonic shook his head. "Man, no one ever cuts us any slack."

"No problem, Knuckles said. This thing had shattered his emerald and attacked him once already - and now its master had used him like a pawn. _Time for payback_. "I'll make him eat dirt!"

Eggman's grin only widened. "Good luck with that once he's in the water…."

To Knuckles' left, Sonic froze.

Chaos slid backward like a misshapen fish and fell over the edge of the dropoff into the pool of water below as the Egg Mobile rose, evidently preparing for the show. Eggman laughed as Knuckles and Tails rushed forward, then slid to a stop in the dirt as they realized Sonic wasn't following them.

"Sonic, are you serious?" Knuckles said. "It's just water."

Sonic laughed weakly. "Yeah… just water…."

Together the three of them leapt over the edge after the creature, Sonic and Knuckles landing on a giant lilypad floating on the surface at the edge of the lake, Tails hovering overhead.

Chaos swam back and forth, looking ominously shark-like, eyeing them every time its head breached the surface. Knuckles raised his fists. "We just have to lure him in, then I'll get him."

Sonic pointed. "We have to hit the brain!"

"Yeah, I know that!" _As if I didn't know how to fight already_ ….

Sonic merely shrugged, then stuck his fingers in his mouth and whistled, waving his other hand above his head. "Yoohoo! Hey, ya big ugly pile of goo!"

Chaos reared its head, then raised an arm high above its head.

"That looks bad!" Tails yelled from above.

The gelatinous hand splashed down hard onto the water's surface, creating a giant shockwave of water that rolled toward their lilypad. Sonic leapt out of the way as it sank, but Knuckles wasn't so lucky. Water blinded him as he was pulled under, and when he managed to resurface, the lilypad was gone.

"Blasted thing," he muttered, shaking water out of his eyes.

He swam hard for the next closest pad, pulling himself up awkwardly as the edge of the leaf sank under his weight. A roar echoed from his left, and he looked up to see that while he had been incapacitated under the waves, Sonic was striking the first blow, his sharp spines hitting the creature's brain dead on.

Chaos' roar had deepened with its latest transformation, and the sheer force of it created ripples in the surrounding water. Sonic used the creature's body to bounce back up before he hit the water's surface, landing instead on a pad behind Chaos. It melted briefly into several puddles of goo, floating on the water, but reformed quickly. It was definitely stronger than it had been before.

"How many times do you suppose we have to hit this thing?" Tails called, alighting on a pad on the far side of the pool near Sonic.

"As many as it takes!" Knuckles said. Chaos had begun to swim directly for him, having lost sight of its initial attacker. It slithered just underneath the surface, presumably to reduce its vulnerability, and Knuckles was forced to jump just before its hands reached out and ripped up his lilypad by the roots.

"If we don't act fast, it'll take out every foothold!" Sonic said. He seemed to be trying to stay directly in the center of his lilypad.

Knuckles jumped again and glided over the surface of the water, catching the air under his long quills and avoiding the lilypads entirely. Chaos followed closely behind him, waiting for him to land. "What, Sonic? Scared?"

"Not a chance!" Sonic's voice was missing its usual confident edge.

As soon as his feet touched another pad, Knuckles was ready. He whipped around and Chaos roared in his face. He leapt over the first blow from its claw-like hand, then ducked under a second. His vision registered a flash of pink and he struck out, and was rewarded with another howl as the creature dissolved once more.

He leapt out of the way before it could reform underneath him, and landed near Sonic and Tails.

"Planning on joining in?" he said, glancing over at them. Tails wasn't much of a fighter, but Sonic….

 _If it wasn't for his damn aquaphobia_.

"Hey, I hurt it first!" Sonic rubbed his hands together nervously, staring down at the waves again. "Just… need to wait for it to get close."

"No need to wait!" Tails pointed. "It's coming in fast!"

All three of them scattered as Chaos ducked under the water to rip up their footholds once more. It writhed around, looking for its next target, and its eyes locked onto Knuckles again. He tensed, waiting for its next attack, but then its alien gaze slid to his right, recognizing a splash of bright yellow and blue a little further away.

 _This isn't good_.

It thrashed again, then breached the surface entirely, hanging in the air for a split second that felt like forever.

"Look out!"

All its weight crashed down onto the surface, and it must have had some way of manipulating the water, as the wave that it caused was far bigger than it had any right to be. It was so big that Knuckles didn't bother trying to leap over it - he ducked, grabbed onto the edge of the lilypad, and clung on for dear life.

The wave hit him with the force of a truck. He clung doggedly to his only support, holding his breath. Water rushed and bubbled past his ears, and he could see beams of light shifting through the water through his closed eyelids as the lake's surface churned around. After what felt like hours, the roiling of the waves slowed, and Knuckles was able to resurface, his lilypad still miraculously intact.

He coughed and gasped for air, shaking water out of his eyes. In the center of the lake, Chaos was floating motionlessly on the surface, its eyes staring ahead blankly. It seemed to have stunned even itself with the force of its attack. Knuckles shook himself and climbed back to his feet, water sloshing over the pad around his shoes. This should give them some time to breathe.

He glanced around, looking for the others. Tails was flying over the scene, safe and clearly unaffected by the wave - but he looked stricken, staring down into the water.

"Sonic!" he cried, sounding panicked.

Knuckles followed his gaze, and his heart skipped a beat. Amidst the murky greenish waves, he could see a blurry splotch of vivid blue and red… and it was shrinking rapidly.

Knuckles looked back up at Tails. "You keep Chaos busy!" he yelled. "I'll get Sonic!"

Tails nodded, his eyes huge. Knuckles took a deep breath, readied himself, and dived.

Back underneath the water, the sounds from above were muffled and distant. The water buffeted him around as Chaos recovered and began to swim once again, but it seemed to be ignoring him for now. He swam as fast as he could - the lake didn't seem to be as deep as it looked from the surface, but it was still far deeper than Sonic could jump up to save himself.

As he reached the bottom he could see Sonic more clearly. He was sitting on the mud, his hand pressed against his throat, staring up with a wild gaze at the surface far above. As Knuckles approached his eyes locked on him, terrified.

Knuckles stretched out a hand as soon as he was within reach, and Sonic grabbed it like a lifeline. He let himself sink a little further until he could plant his feet on the boom of the lake, and then pushed off as hard as he could toward the surface. The swim back up was more laborious than the descent, and Knuckles' chest began to tighten until he was straining for air. About halfway up Sonic suddenly jerked against his hand and began kicking in distress. Knuckles grunted, realizing he must have swallowed water. _If he keeps this up, we're not gonna make it back_ ….

He swam as hard as he could, still dragging the struggling Sonic behind him, and finally his head broke the water's surface. Knuckles gasped, then pulled Sonic up, grabbing for a lilypad that was just within reach.

As soon as Sonic grabbed its edge he scrambled frantically, nearly kicking Knuckles in the face in the process, then collapsed onto its surface, choking.

"Are you okay?" Knuckles panted, kneeling next to him.

He looked up just in time to witness an impressive sight - Tails divebombing Chaos feet first, and hitting its brain dead on. It let out its highest-pitched wail yet, and as Knuckles winced at the sound, it melted into a shapeless blob - and this time, didn't reform.

Tails glared down at the scene for a moment before remembering Knuckles and Sonic, and flew over as fast as his tails would carry him. "Sonic! Are you all right?" he said, alighting next to him.

Sonic was still coughing, but he managed a thumbs-up, face down on the pad.

Knuckles folded his arms and stared at Tails, not knowing quite what to say. "Uh… that was impressive."

"What, the Chaos thing?" Tails said. "I thought Sonic was going to _die_. I guess that made me mad enough to…."

"Do some serious damage?"

He chuckled breathlessly, rubbing the back of his neck. "Yeah."

"Good… going, buddy." Sonic's voice was strained, and muffled by the lilypad.

"By the way," Tails said, looking back at Knuckles sincerely, "thanks for saving him."

He waved a hand, feeling himself flush again. "I'm the strongest swimmer here. It was the best choice." He frowned as the sky above them suddenly darkened. "Wait… what's that?"

He stood, gazing upward. Above them, a gigantic red and yellow battleship was making its way slowly across the sky, casting a massive shadow over the Mystic Ruins.

Knuckles' stomach dropped. _If that's Eggman's ship_ ….

Trusting that Tails had the situation in the lake under control now that Chaos was gone, Knuckles leapt up and dug his fists into the dirt dropoff surrounding the water's edge, climbing back up to the grassy part of the ruins where they'd first encountered Eggman. He was still there in his Egg Mobile, clearly having just watched the entire battle from above, and was somehow managing to look infuriated and smug at the same time.

"It doesn't matter if you beat Chaos this time," he said.

Knuckles let out a huff of laughter. "You're only saying that because you lost. Again."

Behind him, the sound of whirring tails announced the arrival of the other two, Sonic still soaking wet and looking rather disheveled.

Eggman snickered. "Have a nice swim, Sonic?"

Sonic only winked, looking unperturbed from his brush with death. "Woulda been nicer if you heated the pool, first."

"Well, you've rejoined the party just in time." Eggman made a grand gesture to the battleship hovering above the ruins. "Behold, my flying fortress and ultimate masterpiece - the Egg Carrier! But I warn you, it pales in comparison to the power of Chaos."

"Must be a _real_ hunk of junk, then - "

"Silence!" Eggman's finger hovered over a button on his console, and all three of them tensed, ready for yet another fight. But instead, he said, "Adieu… until we meet again, my _friends!_ "

He pressed the button, and a green beam of light extended from the fortress' underbelly, engulfing the Egg Mobile. Knuckles squinted in the light as the vehicle rose, climbing high until it disappeared into the ship.

The light faded, and as the Egg Carrier began to fly away, out to sea, its shadow slid away and sunlight returned. For a brief moment, there was silence between the three of them.

"Hey - we can't let him get away!" Tails jumped in front of them, and Knuckles could tell that having been the one to strike the final blow against Chaos had invigorated him. "My workshop's just up the hill. Let's get the Tornado and go after him!"

"Sounds good, Tails!" Sonic said, trying to tap water out of his ear.

"You guys go," Knuckles said. He realized that from here, he could feel a familiar pull, tugging against him and pulling him deeper into the ruins. "I… have some unfinished business to take care of here."

Sonic and Tails looked over at him. Tails looked disappointed, but Sonic gave him a smile - a real, sincere one. "No problem, Knuckles. We'll take care of everything here."

Knuckles nodded, then smiled back, briefly.

"Come on Tails!" Sonic dug his feet into the grass in a familiar gesture. "Let's move!"

Knuckles watched them all the way across the field and up the hill, and realized he was actually sorry to see them go. _Allies. Friends, even_. They had never wanted his emerald in the first place.

 _We'll have to catch up properly once they get back and I restore my island_ , he thought, turning back toward where he felt the tug coming from. _And that Eggman… if they don't deal with him this time, then I_ will.

* * *

 ** _Mystic Ruins workshop - early afternoon_**

"I'm sure glad Knuckles came around," Tails said as he and Sonic hurried up the side of the slope towards his workshop.

"Yeah, he's a good guy." An image of Knuckles demanding the emeralds from just minutes before flashed through his mind. "Even if he can be a knucklehead."

"He saved you from _drowning_ , Sonic."

"Well…." Even less pleasant images of murky water and bubbles of escaping air joined the first, and he coughed reflexively. "There's that too."

They stopped in front of the workshop's main door, and Tails put out a hand to prevent Sonic from entering just as he reached for the doorknob. "Okay, Sonic - just wait here for a sec."

Sonic shrugged, interest piqued at why he wasn't allowing him to enter but not enough to protest, and leaned against one of the roof columns as Tails slipped inside, shutting the wooden door behind him. For a few moments Sonic heard nothing - then some kind of metallic clanging, and the hum of machinery.

 _What could he possibly be doing in there?_ Sonic wondered, but just at that moment, something else caught his attention.

The flat strip of bare dirt in front of the workshop must be a runway, he realized. Potted palm trees lined the path, but he watched as one by one they bowed outward, and the middle of the path split down the middle on a previously-invisible seam. Twin panels slid to the side underneath the rest of the dirt, and a paved road rose up from beneath, settling itself snugly in the center.

The metal side of the workshop facing the runway lifted, and there was Tails, sitting in the pilot's seat of Sonic's plane as it rolled out to the runway. He waved at Sonic, a huge smile on his face.

"Sonic! Hop on!"

Sonic couldn't help grinning back. "This is sweet! You give this baby a fresh coat of paint?" He leapt up, landing expertly on his favorite spot on the fuselage in the back, where there was just enough room to stand comfortably. "All right! Let's roll!"

"We can still catch up if we hurry!"

The Tornado began to roll forward and pick up speed, and as it reached the end of the runway and wind lifted it under the wings Sonic couldn't help whooping in excitement. It had been too long since he'd last flown with Tails, and he was lying if he said he didn't get a kick out of standing on the back while his friend flew.

As the sun began to descend toward the horizon, Tails altered course, gaining altitude, and they sped off toward the dwindling Egg Carrier in the distance.

* * *

 ** _Above the Mystic Ruins - early afternoon_**

The Tornado may have been small and old-fashioned, but Tails had given it quite a few upgrades since Sonic had begun lending it to him on a regular basis.

One of those upgrades, appropriately, was speed.

"Is it just me, or is this thing going faster than usual?" Sonic yelled from behind him, still perched on the fuselage.

"According to my latest calculations, the upgrades I've given the engines should allow it to break the sound barrier!" Tails called back, receiving an appreciative whoop in response. "But we don't need to go that fast to catch up - we don't want to overshoot him. That thing doesn't look like it moves too fast."

Already the Egg Carrier was growing larger above the horizon. It only took a few minutes of flying for the first surprise to arrive - a small group of tiny robot-controlled fighter planes equipped with rapid-fire guns.

"I hope you upgraded this thing's armor too!" Sonic shouted as Tails dove to dodge their fire, the first bullets pinging on the plane's exterior.

"Nothing he's got can get through to us!" he said. Their bullets seemed weak - intended to overwhelm through sheer numbers, not take them down in one blow.

But it appeared that Eggman did have the numbers. A veritable swarm of fighters was arriving from the direction of their quarry, all firing wildly.

 _They have terrible aim_ , Tails thought as the storm of bullets missed them by a mile. "All right, you asked for it!" he yelled, flicking open the safeties on the tips of the plane's yoke. When the next wave arrived, he aimed the nose directly at them, and opened fire.

Several went down in smoke immediately, and the rest continued on as though nothing had happened. _Just as I thought - mindless drones_. Several came back around for another pass, and Tails blasted them with more bullets of his own. The engines of the Egg Carrier were clear in his view now, huge and spewing bright blue exhaust fire, and he pulled up sharply to avoid getting caught in the boiling hot jet.

"You all right back there?" he yelled.

Sonic only laughed. "Look Tails! No hands!"

"Sonic, that's a very bad idea - "

Just as they crested, the Tornado shuddered violently, and Tails heard a yelp.

"Ah, geez!"

"Told you!"

The plane leveled out, and Tails realized with a jolt of alarm that there were turrets on the deck of the Egg Carrier, firing much larger and deadlier projectiles in waves.

"Hang on back there!"

He'd have to take them out if they were going to land. Pulling up hard, he increased speed for a brief moment, then pulled back until they were diving nose-first into the group of turrets.

"Take this!" he yelled, unleashing a hail of bullets. All but one exploded in a shower of sparks and jagged metal.

"Yeah!"

"Tails - more fighters behind us!"

Tails swerved to the side to avoid being caught in their fire, rolling completely over for good measure (Sonic was cheering), and cut their speed. When the fighters overshot them, he opened fire once again, taking out several more and sending their smoking remains plunging toward the deck.

He glanced to the side and hissed. "More turrets!"

Eggman must have covered every side of his fortress with the things in anticipation of just such an attack. Tails dove and swerved once more - luckily, the turrets' ammunition didn't seem to move too terribly fast in comparison - and blasted those ones too, taking out several more before they sped by in a blur.

He swung around the nose of the battleship before coming back around for another pass.

"Tails, aren't we gonna land this thing?"

"Not yet," Tails said as he dodged a hail of gunfire from another swarm of fighters. "If we're gonna land in one piece, we gotta take out those turrets, or they'll tear us to shreds!"

Just as he spoke, more came into view on the front deck, and this time Tails wasn't able to dodge fast enough. He grunted in frustration as the Tornado shuddered again, and an alert began to sound from the console.

"Tails? What's that?"

He concentrated on firing into the turrets first, blowing up several more. "Some of the shrapnel blew off and hit our left wing. The damage isn't too bad, but we need to avoid any more fire, or we could be in big trouble!"

"No problem, pal! You got this!"

Tails gripped the yoke tighter and crested the Egg Carrier again, making another run along its side and avoiding any more turret fire. It seemed like he'd destroyed most of the airborne craft by now, which made things much easier. As they reached the nose of the airship once again, Tails increased speed, putting some distance between then and the battleship. Ahead of him, he could see the entire city of Station Square laid out like a map, and he felt the corners of his mouth curve upwards in determination.

"All right, Sonic," he said. "We're making one last run along the main deck - then we'll land and take on Eggman ourselves!"

Sonic whooped. "Sounds good to me!"

Tails swung the Tornado around to face the Egg Carrier head on, and his heart nearly stopped. Gigantic panels in the front of the ship had slid back, and the sight of what was behind them threw him into a sudden panic.

"No!" he gasped in abject terror, pulling back hard on the yoke.

The laser cannon was surprisingly silent as it fired.

The light blue beam arced toward them, looking almost beautiful against the setting sun, and demolished their left wing.

Everything seemed to happen in slow motion. The Tornado's nose began to dip, and the horizon swung lazily upside down. Alarms wailed from the console in earnest as debris from the wing floated around them, pieces flying into the plane's engine and causing it to emit thick smoke. Tails felt something click and detach underneath his seat, and realized what was about to happen.

The seat ejected itself, Tails still strapped tightly into it, and he found himself with a front row seat for the devastation of Sonic's beloved plane - his most prized possession. The red-painted metal, still shiny from the fresh coat he'd given it just days before, screeched as it tore itself apart from sheer stress.

And Sonic… Sonic was hanging on for dear life to the back rudder, even as it began to separate from the rest of the plane. Tails couldn't see his face.

Then his hand slipped, and time abruptly returned to normal.

" _Sonic!_ " Tails screamed. Sonic went tumbling away, flailing limply in the wind.

A stray bit of metal rushed toward Tails' face - and then, nothing.


	5. Leading Lights

**_Egg Carrier - afternoon_**

Gamma had been patrolling the halls of the Egg Carrier, as it had been doing since its activation, when the alarm signaling an attack had sounded. It had only been serving on board the ship for a few days, and already something was going wrong.

It had been created for battle, this much it knew. The missile cannon on its right arm demonstrated as much And even with a simple patrol job, over the past few days it had already begun to learn more about the world. It knew language better now. It knew of Dr. Robotnik's reputation - or of his own estimation of his reputation, at the very least.

But a few minutes after the alarm had begun to sound, it ceased just as quickly, and not once had Gamma been called out to fight.

Now, not long afterwards, it stood along with the rest of the E-100 series robots - minus Beta, it noticed, who had been missing ever since it had first met it. The others were modeled after Gamma, having been activated only the day after it had won the fight against Beta and been declared superior. They stood in a line in the central room of the fortress, awaiting the reason they had all been called here.

 _It must be important._

"Ahem… testing, 1, 2, 3…."

Dr. Robotnik stood on a circular, floating podium above the line of robots, a microphone on the stand in front of him and a blank screen pulled down behind him. He leaned forward and spoke fully into the microphone, his voice booming across the room unnecessarily loudly, due to the robots' keen aural processors.

"You, the elite Egg Carrier crew, are here today…."

Waiting. Waiting patiently.

"…to hear a very special announcement."

If it had had toes, Gamma would have stood on them in anticipation.

 _This must be it. We are finally being sent into real battle -_

"Behold!"

The screen behind the doctor illuminated.

"It's a tailed frog! _Very_ unique!"

Indeed, an image of a green frog with a long tail spun in 3D on the screen above them. Gamma stared.

Dr. Robotnik clenched an enthusiastic fist in front of him. "This frog is absolutely vital to my plans!"

 _A frog._

"And I, your brilliant master, command you to locate this frog for me immediately. I don't care what it takes - just get it to me intact!"

 _A tailed frog._

"We haven't got much time to waste. As I'm sure you all noticed from that little incident just a little while ago, our dastardly enemies are already launching attacks on the base! We've already blown them out of the sky, of course - " at this, the doctor twirled his mustache self-aggrandizingly - "but they are ruthless and relentless. So come to attention!"

The E-100 series, including Gamma, all straightened up as one, each likely thinking the same thing.

 _We were attacked because of a frog._

"As soon as this fortress lands at the jungle base once more, you will all exit this ship and find it for me! Understood?"

"Yes, Dr. Robotnik, our brilliant master," they chorused as one.

"Dismissed!"

The screen went dark, and the doctor's podium rose into the ceiling, depositing him out onto the upper deck and leaving the E-100 series alone.

The closest to Gamma in line, Delta, turned to it and hung its arms at its side. "We are being sent to hunt small amphibians," it said flatly.

Gamma knew the feeling.

* * *

 ** _Station Square - evening_**

The sun shone beautifully over the city that afternoon, painting the sky with bright rays like a priceless work of art hanging in a museum.

And Amy Rose was sick of it.

"I'm so _bored_ ," she said out loud to herself as she plodded along down the street back to her apartment, hugging a bag full of groceries to her chest and straining to see over it due to her diminutive stature. _Everything's the same old thing… same place, different day_ …. The only new thing around here lately was the tourists, flocking in for the summer amenities, but for a permanent resident such as herself, such a thing got old quickly. She'd only moved in a year ago, but it had quickly gotten boring.

Amy fished an apple out of her bag and chomped on it. She chewed thoughtfully, lost in her memories. _I miss the good old days_ , she thought, memories flashing through her mind. _Hanging out with Sonic, chasing bad guys and blowing them away_ …. She could almost feel Sonic's arms holding on to her as he raced along at breakneck speed, carrying her away from his robotic doppelganger, and her cheeks turned faintly pink to match her fur. Perhaps needing a rescue _had_ been a little embarrassing, but she was younger then, less capable. She'd learned a few more things since then, she was certain she could help out if she ever saw him again….

"But now he's gone," she said aloud, stomping her foot a little and taking another bite of the apple. "And there's nothing left to do but shop till I drop." _And not even the fun kind of shopping._ Grocery _shopping_.

There had always been something fun to do with Sonic around. But she hadn't seen him since she'd first moved into Station Square - off on his endless adventures, she supposed, but she'd really thought they'd been becoming good friends. _I really miss him_ ….

Amy turned onto a relatively empty street, further away from the tourist-centric areas of the city, and stopped in her tracks as the sky darkened rapidly. "Hey, what's going on?" she said. "Is there an eclipse today, or what?" She hadn't heard anything about an eclipse, or a storm, so what could….

Amy looked up at the sky, and dropped her bag of groceries.

A gigantic airship was making its way across the sky above the city, casting a massive shadow over everything in sight. Its hull shone with a bright shade of red, and even from this distance, Amy could make out the familiar yellow silhouette stenciled onto the side.

She gasped. " _Eggman?_ " Could it be him? Here, in Station Square?

Amy was so busy staring the airship as it passed overhead and light began to return to the city, that the face full of feathers came as a total shock.

" _Argh!_ Watch it, watch it!"

She stumbled back as whatever-it-was flapped frantically in her face, tripped, and sat down hard on the pavement. The thing fell away, and she shook her head, disoriented. "Ow!" she muttered, rubbing at her eyes. "You should watch where you're going, buddy - " She cut herself short as she opened her eyes and caught sight of what exactly had hit her. "Hey…."

It was a tiny bird, just big enough to fit snugly in the palm of her hand, covered in light blue feathers and wearing an even tinier pendant with a cyan jewel set into the front around its neck. It lay on the pavement in front of her, seemingly passed out.

"Are you okay?" she asked it, gently touching its head. "You look kinda hurt."

It didn't stir.

A rather ominous, clanging thud sounded from behind her, and she automatically scooped the unconscious bird into her hands, standing and turning to look.

An ugly greenish robot stood - or rather, floated - in the center of the sidewalk, bobbing up and down. Two giant claws on spindly arms extended from its sides, opening and closing in an uncomfortably grabby gesture, and Amy could make out the word "Zero" written on its side. It stared directly at her with two glowing red eyes, which flitted between her face and the bird clutched in her hands.

"Um… hello?" she said uncertainly.

And it charged.

Amy let out a squeal of fright and leapt to the side, letting it barrel past her. What was this thing? And why was it after _her?_

"You almost ran me over, creep!" she called after it, hugging the bird close to her chest.

It leaned backward and activated air jets at the bottom of its body, skidding to a halt midair. Then it spun back to face her, and charged a second time, claws grabbing.

This time, she ran, bolting down the street as it chased after her. _What to do, what to do?_ She could hear its gears whirring as it kept pace behind her. She would never be able to outrun this thing normally, but….

Amy suddenly remembered which street she was on - and which one she had been heading toward - and an idea came to her. _Of course!_ She ran full tilt around the corner, skidding slightly, and burst into the nearest fast food restaurant, double doors swinging wildly behind her.

"Whoa, Amy!" said the teenage cashier behind the counter. "If you wanted a burger so badly, all you had to do was - "

"Shh!" she said impatiently, steadying the doors with one hand while still clutching the bird in the other. "Just act natural, it can see you through the window!"

The cashier looked nonplussed, but Amy had her ears pricked, listening outside.

There were a few gasps from pedestrians as they took in the robot's strange appearance, then the familiar whirring of gears coming closer… closer….

And then fading as the robot bypassed the shop.

Amy let out a breath of relief, and then noticed that sometime during the chase, the bird must have awoken. It was watching her with large, fearful brown eyes. "Hey, don't worry," she said softly, loosening her grip on it so it could stand in her palm. "I'm not gonna hurt you!"

The bird gave a small hopeful peep.

"That was one of Eggman's robots chasing us, huh?" She stood on her tiptoes to peer out the nearby window, but couldn't see any sign of it - it must have moved on to another part of the city. The bird chirped. "He must have captured you, and somehow you got away, right?"

The bird chirped again, looking a little more optimistic.

"You fell from that airship?"

Chirp.

"And… you would appreciate it if a sweet, innocent girl like me were to help you, right?"

Chirp chirp! Amy beamed down at the bird.

"Then don't worry about a thing! I'll protect you." The bird shook itself, ruffling up its feathers. "Are you hurt badly? Can you fly?"

It flapped its wings experimentally, then rose up in front of her.

"Perfect!" Amy clapped her hands together, and then remembered they had an audience.

She turned to find the cashier staring at her dumbfounded. "Did I just witness a hedgehog girl adopt a fugitive bird as her new pet?" he asked of no one in particular.

"This bird isn't my pet, he's my new friend!" Amy held up a finger. "Right, birdie?"

"Chirp chirp!"

As the cashier faceplanted into his own hand, Amy and the bird exited the shop, glancing around carefully. "I think he must have left for now," she said. "But if he's still looking for us, then we need to be careful…."

The bird let out a little squeak of doubt.

" _But_ ," she added, "I'll do my best to keep us both from harm. I'll stand by you all the way, like I do for all my friends!"

She skipped down the street, the bird flapping along beside her, as the sky began to darken for the evening.

* * *

 ** _Emerald Coast - evening_**

"Mister?"

"Mmph! _Mmmmmph!_ "

Sonic kicked rapidly, but his feet his only air - everything was dark and hot, and it was exceedingly hard to breathe.

"Are you okay?"

No, he _wasn't_ , his head was stuck and if he didn't get out soon he just might _suffocate_ -

Sonic braced his hands against the ground on either side of his head and pushed as hard as he could, and miraculously, he popped free. He fell back, sprawling on the sand and taking deep breaths of cool evening air.

Somewhere nearby, he could hear waves lapping at the shore, and he tasted salt on the air, which meant the ocean. He cringed inwardly at the thought, but the sand he was lying on was dry, so he forced the thought of water out of his mind and sat up, groaning. He had a killer headache, and there was a tear in his left glove, but he otherwise seemed relatively uninjured, at least as far as he could tell.

Opening his eyes, Sonic realized immediately that he must have been out cold for hours, as the sky was dark, the sun having sunk below the horizon. _What happened last…?_ He and Tails had been flying the Tornado against the Egg Carrier, trying to clear a spot to land. There was a flash of blue light, Sonic's grip on the plane's tail had slipped, then… nothing.

"Tails?" he said, thoughts suddenly clearing. He scrambled to his feet to find a little human girl staring at him wide-eyed.

"You fell from the sky," she said simply. "I thought you might be dead."

"Not dead. Have you seen a yellow fox anywhere near here recently?" She shook her head, and Sonic sighed. _I hope he's okay… that crash was rough_.

Tails had installed an ejector seat a couple years ago, set to activate if anything went horribly wrong, but Sonic had never expected it would be necessary in the end. He'd had that plane… he didn't even remember how long. He was really going to feel its loss. Just the thought of it sent a pang through his chest.

And Tails… if the seat had worked properly, he should be safe. But Sonic had no idea where he might have ended up. With how high they had been flying, and how chaotic the battle had been, he could be anywhere by now - miles and miles from the city, or floating in the middle of the ocean.

Trying to erase that last thought from his mind and leaving the girl still standing in surprise next to the beach, Sonic turned back toward the resort, which he could see glimmering not too far away, and took off to find his friend.

* * *

 ** _West Side Island - two years ago_**

 _The forest was quiet as Tails made his way along the overgrown path, hot tears threatening to spill from his eyes. He was trying to put as much distance as possible between the others and himself as possible, but today, no amount of distance felt like enough._

 _Why couldn't they just leave him alone? - it wasn't his fault he'd been born with this stupid extra tail. He'd done everything he could to show them he wasn't a defect. He'd devoured every book he could get his hands on about machinery and mechanics, thinking he could fix everyone's household appliances and be hailed as someone actually useful, someone intelligent, helpful, only to find himself teased all the worse for being nerdy. He had no friends, and he was beginning to think there wasn't even a reason he should have been born. Even his nickname was an insult from his peers. He could never escape it._

 _Stupid kids, stupid everyone - I just wanted a friend…._

 _Tails was so lost in his thoughts that the sudden rush of wind in front of him made him yelp and nearly topple backwards into the bushes. He looked up just in time to see a bluish blur disappear between the trees at an astonishing speed._

 _"Whoa…" he murmured. Was that a person? How could one creature move so fast…?_

 _Troubles briefly forgotten in the face of this strange new anomaly, Tails scrambled after the mysterious being as fast as his feet would carry him, his tails automatically waving behind him to try to boost his own speed. The underbrush was thick, but whatever it was had passed through at such a velocity that it had almost paved itself an entirely new path, which Tails was easily able to follow. He ran for a long time, but he was much slower than the thing he was following, and he couldn't see a sign of it anywhere._

 _He'd almost begun to give up hope of finding whoever had caused that gust of wind when the trees opened up onto the beach and he stopped, instinctively clutching a nearby tree trunk._

 _The blue blur was nowhere to be found, but sitting on the empty beach was a red biplane. Tails could see the name "Sonic" painted on the side, and his ears pricked in interest. He did love reading about planes…._

 _Then he realized he had been wrong - the beach wasn't empty. Lying in the shade underneath the plane, hands folded behind his head, was a blue hedgehog with worn red sneakers. He appeared to be napping. Tails put the pieces together quickly - if anyone had caused that rush of wind, it was him. Footprints in the sand led from where Tails stood directly to the hedgehog._

 _That must be his plane - which meant his name must be Sonic._

 _"Sonic the Hedgehog," Tails said, testing the name aloud quietly._

 _Suddenly a deafening explosion shook the leaves of the trees around him, and, covering his ears in pain, Tails turned to see a column of fire and smoke rising above the tree line. Shards of rock and splintered wood showered down from the sky, followed by the panicked twittering of birds as they fled the scene. Terrified, Tails ducked below the fronds of a nearby fern - and then realized that Sonic was gone from underneath the plane._

 _He twisted around to look, and saw Sonic standing near the edge of the forest, staring into the brush. Tails followed his gaze to see a group of robots emerging from the forest - nasty-looking ones, shaped like wasps, stingers and all. Sonic pulled at a glove, and Tails was astonished to see a smirk on his face - then he rushed the robots, hopping up as soon as he reached them. Each one found itself demolished with an impact from his spines, and he landed in the middle of the wreckage, looking pleased with himself._

 _Whoa, he's cool!_

 _Another explosion rocked the forest, and before Tails could react, Sonic had darted off again, kicking up sand in his wake as he sped toward its source. Scrambling out from underneath his fern, Tails ran after him, intrigued. Whatever was going on, Tails was determined to meet Sonic - even if he had to run into a horde of robots for it._

 _Because if someone like Sonic would vouch for him, maybe one day, he wouldn't be an outcast anymore…._

 _"Sonic…."_

* * *

 ** _Mystic Ruins jungle - evening_**

Tails' eyes fluttered open dreamily, and he smiled. What a memory… the first time he'd ever seen Sonic. He would never forget it.

"That dream sure brought me back," he said aloud, his voice hoarse for some reason, and stared up at the darkening sky. The slowly-appearing stars were so beautiful, even half-obscured as they were by the leaves of the trees above, rustling gently in the wind. "I owe so much to Sonic."

Sonic.

 _Wait…._

Tails' eyes snapped open fully.

 _The laser - the crash - and Sonic fell - !_

He tried to scramble to his feet and was yanked back by the straps still keeping him secure in the ejector seat. Judging by the wind, he had landed high up in the Mystic Ruins. There were a few sparse trees around, but the wreck of the Tornado was nowhere in sight. Tails didn't know if that meant he'd been shot far away from the site of the crash by the ejector seat, or if there simply wasn't enough left of the Tornado for a crash site to exist at all.

 _Or both. Oh, Sonic…._

Managing to untangle himself from the seat, Tails stood and inspected himself. He appeared to be uninjured apart from a painful lump on his forehead, where the stray bit of debris had struck him and knocked him out. Noticing a dropoff nearby, he walked carefully over, still unsteady on his feet, and his heart leapt - by some incredible stroke of fortune, he appeared to have landed on top of the cliff overlooking his workshop.

"Sonic!" he called, twin tails already whirling to bring him safely back to ground level. As soon as he landed he took off running, searching for any sign of his friend, but there was nothing. The entire place looked empty - not even the explorers were anywhere in sight.

Tails stopped to catch his breath - _not good to run around so fast and so soon after crashing a plane._ The battle had happened close to Station Square, and while Tails had had the ejector seat with its parachute to keep him safe, Sonic must have free-fallen all the way to the ground. He might have landed in or near the city.

It was his only lead. Tails straightened up and headed for the nearby station, flying up to the wooden platform. To his relief, the local station master was there, looking bored and tired.

"Ma'am!" he said, and the woman shook herself.

"Hmm? Oh, Tails. Fancy seeing you here." She chuckled to herself.

"When does the next train get here? I need to get to Station Square, it's urgent!"

The woman peered down her nose at Tails. "Sorry kid, but we're on strike. No trains are running until the bosses meet our demands for fairer pay and - "

" _What?_ " Tails heart began to sink. "But I need to catch a train! My friend is in that city, and he - "

"And _I_ need to put food on the table," the woman grumbled. "Sorry kid, but you're just gonna have to wait like everyone else."

Tails stamped his foot in frustration, not knowing what else to do. Sonic could run faster than any train and could have gotten there easily, but Tails knew there was no way he'd be able to fly himself all the way to Station Square. He was stuck here.

Dragging his feet back down the wooden steps, he wondered what he should do. The Tornado was gone - for all its speed, it wasn't powerful enough to stand up to Eggman's battleship. If they were going to get on board and stop Eggman, they would need something better.

And… Tails _had_ something better.

 _I need to finish my prototype_. It was what he'd wanted to show Sonic earlier. He'd meant to save it for a time when they could admire it properly, take it out for a test flight, but this was rapidly becoming a matter of life or death - _and besides_ , he thought to himself as he took off flying again, heading for his workshop, _Sonic might appreciate it better if he sees it in action for real_. And the sooner he could finish it, the sooner he could fly back to Station Square to look for him.

But it needed a Chaos Emerald to work, and he no longer had any of them, let alone the one he'd built the plane with. Over half of them were in Eggman's hands by now. He needed to find another one, fast.

He had no reliable way of tracking him, but this wasn't the first time he'd had to find Chaos Emeralds blind. It occurred to him that he and Sonic hadn't yet explored the nearby Mystic Ruins jungle - the human explorers were still working their way through it, so in all likelihood he wouldn't even be alone out there, even if they wouldn't be any real help against threats. It was a simple comfort, a reassurance that he wouldn't be completely on his own.

"All right," he said, lifting himself higher until he could see the mass of trees beyond the cliff top. "Let's find a Chaos Emerald!"

* * *

 ** _Station Square - evening_**

Sonic hadn't been roaming the streets of the city long before an all-too-familiar voice rang out behind him.

" _Sonic?_ "

"Ah, geez," he said, closing his eyes and bracing himself.

Sure enough, a second later someone slammed into him from behind, arms wrapping around him and pinning his own to his sides. "Sonic! I can't believe you're here! I didn't know you were in Station Square!"

"Amy…" he said as she released him, turning around. Sure enough, it was her, sporting a new look - spines brushed down and held in place with a headband, and wearing a flowy red dress and boots. She looked like she'd adjusted easily to life in a human city, and now, she was beaming radiantly at him.

"Long time no see!" she said, winking and waving at him. "Man, just a little while ago I was thinking about you, too! This must be fate or something!"

When he didn't respond away, still trying to process this new development through his headache, she folded her arms, looking hurt. "What's wrong with you, anyway?"

"Ah… sorry, Amy." He shook his head. "Hey, I'm kind of busy right now. I'm - "

"Listen!" She gestured over her shoulder, and Sonic noticed for the first time the tiny, light blue bird hovering over it. "I found this little birdie on the street, and he seems like he's in some kind of trouble. So I think you should help me be his bodyguard for a while!"

She beamed again, and Sonic raised an eyebrow.

"Amy, no offense, but I really don't have time to be taking care of a bird right now. I'm looking for Tails, he and I were - "

"Tails?" Amy looked around as if expecting to see him standing nearby. "Well, you can handle taking care of one little birdie while you do that, right?"

"No way!" Sonic shook his head, thoroughly exasperated. He'd be happy to catch up with her later, but not when his friend was missing. "This is important."

"Besides," she said, grabbing his hand anyway and beginning to pull him down the street, "we can help you! It's not like I don't know what Tails looks like, he comes by every so often when he's in town."

Sonic pondered this a moment, then grinned.

"All right…" he said slowly. Amy turned back to him, her face lighting up.

"But only if you can keep up with me!"

Before she could react, he yanked his hand back and took off down the street, hearing her cries of "Oh no, don't run away!" echoing off the buildings behind him.

* * *

 ** _Mystic Ruins jungle - evening_**

Knuckles had searched through the Mystic Ruins for more shards until the sky turned to fire, but now things were rapidly growing darker, making his hunt harder. At least in the city, lights lit up the night, keeping it bright enough to search even the darker corners of the streets. Here in the wilderness, once the sun went down, the shadows reigned.

But he estimated he still had about half an hour left before things became too dark to continue on. And he could feel the familiar tug of a shard. Wherever it was, it had to be close.

He was deep in the jungle now - humans had come crashing through earlier, trampling underbrush and dead sticks under their boots, causing him to wince. He'd lived his entire life in the wilds, he knew how to move through them respectfully, and it pained him that the explorers so clearly didn't. But he'd gone far enough in, unafraid of the uncharted landscape, that he no longer noticed any sign of them. In here, Knuckles was truly alone for the first time since he'd left his island.

To his surprise, it left him conflicted. On one hand, he had always enjoyed the solitude. He wasn't good at socializing, not the way people like Sonic and Tails were anyway, and the quiet suited him just fine. But on the other hand….

Knuckles' thoughts came to a halt as he emerged into an unexpected clearing. _Strange_ , he thought. The ground was dirt underfoot, but it felt harder, as though the dirt was packed onto a neatly paved road. He stamped his foot down to make sure - yes, there was definitely stone under there. He rounded a boulder up ahead, raising his gaze - and stopped dead in his tracks.

Even in ruins, this place was unmistakable.

"I can't believe it," he breathed. He'd _been_ here before. Not physically, as he was beginning to suspect - but the temple that rose in the center of the open area was all too familiar.

He stared around, his earlier vision from the casino flashing through his mind, finding himself able to map out the place mentally. The pyramid temple sat in the center, there. That boulder, now that he thought about it, looked more like a fallen chunk of stone from a wall. Over there - another ruined wall, the forest debris-filled bowl of an ancient torch, even what almost looked like a stone bench, toppled over and cracked next to the path. Knuckles looked up again, the temple silhouetted against the sky amidst a blend of deep purple and blue.

The pull was coming from it.

He started forward, straining his senses, aware of everything around him now. He was wary of traps, but something, some deeper sense told him he was in no danger - nothing would dare hurt him here.

 _This was once the home of echidnas like me_ ….

He almost expected his footsteps to echo, ethereal and strange, on the stone steps of the temple, but they made firm thuds. This place was real, solid. Whatever strange energies had once existed here had faded long ago.

 _How long?_

When Knuckles reached the top of the stone steps, his sense nearly went haywire. He looked around for the shard, but saw nothing except rough, broken stone, weeds growing in the cracks.

"Where is it?" he muttered, suddenly feeling anxious. If he didn't find it in the next few minutes, all the light would fade from the sky, and he'd be stuck here until morning, with no way to locate his shard.

Then, miraculously, light _did_ appear - in the form of a small orange spark.

Knuckles' eyes widened. "You…."

The spark danced up and down, as though it could hear him and was responding. This spark, that had appeared before him just before he'd had the vision of this temple, appearing again as he stood upon its ruins… this was far past coincidence.

"What are you?" he breathed, reaching out a hand to touch it, but it darted away before his mitt could make contact. It began to float toward the temple wall, and Knuckles noticed something he hadn't been able to see in the near-darkness - an empty doorway, leading inside.

The spark flitted in, and Knuckles followed it cautiously, keeping one hand along the wall just in case. He didn't need to go far - just a few feet beyond the entrance lay exactly what he was looking for.

" _There_ you are." He scooped the shard up carefully, placing it with the others. The spark seemed to have deliberately helped him locate it, and he looked up, opening his mouth to thank it - but it had floated a little further down the passage, deeper into the temple. The way it paused, hovering in place, Knuckles could almost imagine it was watching him, waiting for him to follow.

He took one step in its direction, and stopped. He couldn't feel a tug from another shard anywhere nearby - he had no more reason to be here. His duty was to the Master Emerald, not his own desire for adventure. But he couldn't make himself move - either to go deeper, or exit the temple.

This place had once belonged to people like him - other echidnas. The thought of Angel Island, of the Master Emerald, seemed almost distant from where he stood. He'd _seen_ them in the vision - they had lived here, their civilization was here… he could almost imagine he felt them, their essence around him….

There was an odd rushing in his ears, and it was hard to catch his breath.

Almost without thinking, he took another step further into the temple, and it was like something broke - the distant sounds of the jungle return, and he gasped, able to breathe again. _No_.

The Master Emerald came first. Once it was restored, maybe someday he could come back here. _Maybe_. But his duty came first, and as much as it pained him… he couldn't let it go, not after he'd come so far.

The spark watched him, and he could almost feel a sense of disappointment emanating from it.

"I can't," he said. "Whatever it is you want me to see in there… I can't. Not yet."

He turned back toward the entrance, which was by now only a faint outline in the darkness.

The spark flitted in front of him, and he furrowed his brow, swatting at it with a mixture of irritation and sadness. "I told you, I can't go in…."

He trailed off. The spark had begun to spin around him as it had before, and having a feeling he knew what was coming, he closed his eyes as the white light engulfed him.

* * *

 ** _Unknown location - unknown time_**

Once his vision cleared, Knuckles opened his eyes, expecting to see the temple whole again, as it had been in the first vision.

But the temple was nowhere in sight. He stood on lush green grass, waving back and forth in a gentle breeze. A faint, sweet smell drifted on the air, like fresh fruit or flower blossoms. Ahead of him, the grass ended abruptly in a short dropoff to a stream bubbling along a dozen feet below, and connecting his patch of grass to what appeared to be a small island up ahead was a beautifully carved stone bridge. And beyond that….

"Where am I now?" he muttered, walking forward until his feet met the bridge. The edifice up ahead looked like a grand altar, pillars surrounding a central structure with a stone roof. It grew larger in his vision as he crossed the bridge and walked up a short slope, until he stood directly in front of it.

He wasn't the only one there.

At the top of the altar stood a figure that he recognized as the orange echidna, the girl Tikal, the one he'd seen before. He took the steps two at a time until he stood next to her - and gaped.

"I beg of you! Hear me now!" she pleaded, staring up at the Master Emerald. It sat in the center of the altar, balanced on its point, surrounded by a series of intricately carved grooves with trickles of water flowing through them as if by magic.

Knuckles' heart pounded. _Was this the original resting place of the Master Emerald…?_

Tikal continued to speak to the emerald, eyes wide. "My father is coming here soon, and I fear what may happen. He has grown violent over the passing moons…." She clasped her hands in front of her and touched them to her lips. "You _must_ take everyone away from here! Please!"

The Master Emerald began to glow faintly, and Knuckles realized for the first time that each pillar surrounding the altar contained one of the seven Chaos Emeralds balanced on top, all of which had begun to glow as well. The shallow water in the grooves rippled almost imperceptibly. Knuckles could feel some sort of strange energy reverberating through the air, but it was muted by the vision. Tikal, however, seemed to be listening intently.

"Are you saying… you can't leave this place?" she said finally, sounding crestfallen. She sighed, letting her arms fall to her sides, and stared at the ground for a moment before lifting her head again. "I understand. Let me talk to my father again. There must be a better way to do this…."

"Chao! Chao!"

Knuckles and Tikal spun at the same moment, and Knuckles' eyes widened. A small group of chao had appeared at the top of the stone steps. Some reached out to touch the water flowing through the grooves, but several tiptoed toward Tikal, who bent and extended a hand. One of the chao nuzzled her, and she let out a gentle laugh.

"Don't worry, my friends," she said, as though the chao were family. "I won't let you down."

The chao squeaked in delight, and the others around it followed suit, until they had become a chorus.

The sunlight above the scene seemed to grow brighter, and Knuckles shielded his eyes….

* * *

 ** _Station Square - late evening_**

Sonic eventually stopped running, figuring he'd need to give Amy some time to catch up. But he couldn't help tapping his foot impatiently. He doubted that Tails was badly hurt - the Tornado was well designed, after all ( _or had been_ , Sonic reminded himself dejectedly) - but with how crazy things had gotten around here in just a few days, he didn't like to leave him alone. He was an accomplished mechanic, but he was also still a kid. Sonic didn't want him getting into trouble that he couldn't handle by himself.

"No _fair_ , Sonic!" Amy's voice rang out from behind him. _Looks like she made it_. "I can't run as fast as you!"

"S'why you gotta practice," he said, stretching and yawning. Amy stopped beside him and _hmph'd_ , but she didn't look angry, just exasperated. Then she looked past him and her eyes lit up - literally.

" _Ahh!_ Oh my gosh!"

"What now?" He glanced over his shoulder.

Somehow, Sonic had failed to notice before that he had stopped directly in front of the main entrance to Twinkle Park - which, judging from the decorations around the area, was a local theme park. Roller coasters, tea cups, swimming pools….

"Look!" Amy said, standing on tiptoe to read the text displayed on a high-up sign next to the entrance. "It says cute couples get in free! Summer special!"

"What, do they kick out the ugly ones?"

"Soniiiic," she said, turning large puppy eyes on him. He refused to look at the puppy eyes. "You only just came back! Can't you take just a _little_ break?"

He sighed. He'd known where she was going with this from the start. "Amy, I already told ya, I have to look for - "

She screamed again, and Sonic shook his head, thoroughly exasperated.

"No, not that!" she said, and he glanced back at her to see that she looked genuinely scared. So did her bird, which had begun to chirp rapidly. She was staring at something over Sonic's shoulder.

He spun, and saw a clunky-looking green robot with claws for hands, standing on the edge of the street and staring right at them. People nearby looked at it in faint alarm.

"That's the robot that was chasing me and the birdie!"

"Don't panic! I'll handle that bag of bolts." Sonic bent his knees, ready to fight, but found himself suddenly yanked off balance as Amy grabbed his wrist, pulling him toward the entrance to Twinkle Park.

"In here!"

"Amy, is now _really_ the time for theme parks?"

"We can escape into here! If you fight it on the streets, people might get hurt!"

She had a point.

Just as the robot charged them, he took over, darting through the main gate and pulling Amy along behind him until they reached a ticket booth.

"Uhh… ticket?" the woman standing behind the counter said uncertainly.

"Cute couple!" Amy called back as Sonic whisked her past and into the park proper, unable to keep himself from shaking his head again.

Once they were in, Sonic let Amy go so she could run under her own power. Just ahead of them, bright lights glimmered everywhere he looked, a Ferris wheel rising high directly in front of the entrance gates. But this place was still too crowded, and Amy was right - he didn't want anyone getting caught in the crossfire.

So instead, he turned to her and grinned. "Let's blend in. We'll wait for the robot to get to a quieter spot, then kick its metal butt!"

Amy jumped up in excitement. "Yes! Oh Sonic, it's like we're actually on a _da-_ "

"Race ya to the bumper cars!"

Sonic took off once more, Amy's yell and the bird's chirping ringing out behind him.

* * *

 ** _Angel Island altar - late evening_**

When the light faded, Knuckles found to his shock that he was still on the altar.

"What…?"

No - it wasn't the same altar, not anymore. The one in the vision had been whole, but now it was ancient, ruined. A once-great thing, worn away by time, just like the temple, just like the echidnas….

Knuckles paced the center of the altar, slowly, the broken base of the Master Emerald still shimmering dully in the center as he had left it. He could just make out the grooves he'd seen in the vision - once sharp and clear, pooling with crystalline water, now so worn they were barely there.

Who knew how long ago these visions took place - a thousand years, two thousand? But they had told him one very important thing - the Master Emerald had always resided here, even before Angel Island ever floated in the sky.

And speaking of floating islands….

Knuckles slowly pulled out all the shards he had collected, magically shrunken to fit in his palm. Back at the temple, he hadn't felt any more pulls from missing pieces. These had to be it.

"I have to restore them," he said. He stepped closer to the emerald's base and took a breath, spreading his hands so that the shards floated between them, returning to normal size. For a moment, then froze in midair, then began to glow brightly. The emerald's innate power took over as he watched - the shards spun in a slow circle around the base, then fell one by one to piece themselves back together. Part of him wanted to watch the process, but the light was getting brighter by the second, and it was beginning to hurt his eyes. Besides, he'd had about enough of flashing bright lights in the past few days.

He closed his eyes until the light faded behind his eyelids, then opened them again.

The Master Emerald was there, large and glimmering, but….

"It's still incomplete!" he said, frustrated. Most of it was intact, but a large chunk was missing from the side. He'd spent so long searching for the shards, picked up more than he'd care to count, and it still wasn't enough.

Worse still, he had no idea where they rest could be. He couldn't feel them from here, and he'd spread out his search everywhere from where Angel Island had fell outward. Mystic Ruins, Station Square, and the open wilderness between them - what else was there? The ocean?

As he stared at the Master Emerald, eyes unfocused, he suddenly realized that it hadn't quite stopped glowing.

He moved closer, placing a hand on its side, and saw a faint image in its shimmering surface - it looked like an airship. A familiar airship.

"That's Eggman's flying fortress!" The shape was unmistakable, matching the one he'd seen looming over the Mystic Ruins that morning. The emerald was doing his work for him - the remaining shards must be on board. Knuckles clenched his fists at his sides. Eggman had had the nerve to tell him Sonic and Tails were stealing his emerald pieces, but from the looks of things, _he_ was the real culprit….

Trying to ignore how familiar a tale that told, Knuckles readied himself to head out once more before remembering how dark it was. He would have to find Eggman's airship to start, then find a way to sneak aboard, and that wasn't something he could do if he couldn't even see properly five paces ahead.

So he sat down on the top step of the altar, still feeling better than he had in days. He should at least get some sleep before he headed out tomorrow morning. _Besides_ , he thought, yawning and stretching, _it feels good to be home for the night_.


	6. Fakery Way

**_Twinkle Park - night_**

"Ohh, that _Sonic!_ " Amy fumed. She'd begun running after him as soon as he'd taken off into the park, but he was simply too fast for her to keep up. She slowed to a stop after running down several paths and ended up in a rest area, panting. Birdie chirped at her.

"I thought we were coming in here as a couple!" she said, extending her hand for Birdie to alight on. "We would run into the park, take down that dumb robot, then maybe have a romantic date together on the roller coaster…."

Birdie's chirping grew louder.

"I bet you agree with me, don't you, Birdie?"

"CHIRP CHIRP!"

Amy realized that Birdie was not, in fact, chirping in agreement - he was staring with wide eyes over Amy's shoulder. She looked slowly back, dread twisting her stomach as she realized that she could hear a familiar whirring noise.

Looked like Zero wasn't as far behind as she'd hoped.

Amy screamed, taking off once more, barely dodging as Zero made a grab for her and sprinting into a throng of confused park-goers.

"Leave us alone, you stupid robot!"

A bright flash caught her eye as she ran - the entrance to the House of Mirrors was just ahead. If anything could confuse that robot, she supposed trying to find the _real_ her amongst a hundred reflected copies ought to do it.

"Come on, Birdie!" Amy said, making a beeline for the building as Zero whirred behind her.

She burst in, gasps and yelps following her as the visiting humans caught sight of the thing chasing her. With any luck, park management would soon figure out what was going on and clear everyone out. Amy rounded a corner and encountered her first mirror, warped and distorting her image into a caricature. She skidded and dodged to the side.

This place was a maze, literally - Amy was counting on the idea that someone like her could make it through, but a robot couldn't. In her haste she smacked into several mirrors, but refused to quit running, darting down passages and ignoring her strange reflections as she passed them by.

Somewhere she took a turn into a long hallway with floor-to-ceiling mirrors on either side, giving the impression of a room stretching into infinity. Not stopping, she raced to the end, then chanced a glance behind her. Zero was there, at the other end, but as she had hoped, it seemed to have trouble distinguishing reality from reflection. It stared at her, then a mirror version of her, then further out, clearly wondering which was the real her. Overcome with childish triumph, she stuck her tongue out at it. It whirred louder and dashed for her - and collided directly with the mirror. It had chosen the wrong target after all.

Laughing, Amy continued running, finally coming to a halt just before the exit. Somehow Birdie had managed to keep up with her in all the chaos, and hovered over her shoulder, chirping.

"Do you think we lost him?" she asked of him, bending over to catch her breath. Listening carefully, she heard only generic crowd chatter, but no sign of whirring gears.

"All right!" Amy straightened up and emerged from the House of Mirrors carefully into the open. The crowd here was significantly thinner than before - looked like the park was being shut down after all, thanks to their chase.

"Now we just need to find Sonic," Amy said.

* * *

 ** _Mystic Ruins jungle - night_**

Tails was stunned.

He hadn't had to go far for a Chaos Emerald after all. As he walked through the jungle, on the lookout for any out-of-place glimmers among the foliage, he had heard the human explorers crashing along through the trees as though they were trying to make as much noise as possible, and even caught a glimpse of a campfire from afar. As he'd suspected, he wasn't alone out here. But when he had encountered a tiny hole in a thicket of brambles that any human would be far too big to fit through, Tails had scrambled through easily, and found himself standing in a small cave - bare, except for the faintly glowing red gem lying in the center.

He gasped in delight. "A Chaos Emerald!" It wasn't the first time he had encountered an emerald in such a convenient location - he'd observed before that they had a tendency to show up wherever they were most needed - but this was still a stroke of brilliant luck, to have found one so easily.

Tails jogged forward, hand already outstretched to grab it, but someone else got there first.

Or rather, some _thing_ \- a green flash swept over the emerald, and when it disappeared, so had the emerald. Tails looked up in surprise to see a frog with a tail, the emerald held in its mouth, hopping further into the cave ahead at top speed.

"Hey, wait up! I needed that!"

Tails gave chase as the frog hopped deeper into the cave, landing on a patch of soft dirt just ahead. Tails caught up easily thanks to his larger size, but just as he made a grab for the frog, the ground gave way under their feet.

Tails yelped as the dirt fell away, sucking both him and the frog down in a manner unpleasantly similar to a flushing toilet, until they found themselves dumped out onto a stretch of damp dirt, cold from the night air. He scrambled to his feet, ignoring the last small bit of dirt from above dusting his head, and glanced around the area frantically - sure enough, there was a splash of green and red amidst the dark brown of the jungle floor.

"Give that back!" he cried, lunging at the frog. It tried to jump away again, but the soft dirt offered no purchase, and Tails tackled it.

It was nearly half his size, and wriggling madly to get away, but Tails clung on doggedly, managing to wrench the emerald from its mouth. "Gotcha!" he said, sitting back, clutching the emerald in one hand and the frog in the other arm. He glared down at it. "You know, if you hadn't stolen it in the first place, this wouldn't have happened. What does a frog need with a Chaos Emerald, anyway?"

The frog stopped struggling.

Tails stared at it, wondering if it had somehow understood him, when something bright and orange flitted in front of his face. He waved at it impatiently, thinking it was a firefly, until it began to circle him, flying faster with every rotation. "Hey," he said, "what - ?"

He never got a chance to finish as his vision whited out.

* * *

 ** _Unknown location - unknown time_**

When the light faded, the first thing Tails registered was that his hands were empty.

The frog he could take or leave, but - "Where's the emerald?" He patted himself down, then scanned the ground around him. Nothing.

He was about to panic that he had managed to lose yet another emerald, but at that moment he looked up and noticed his surroundings. His mouth fell open. _Uh oh. I thought I was in the jungle_ ….

A huge stone temple loomed over the scene, standing at the end of a long, cobblestoned path, large red torches burning on either side of it. The place was surrounded by tall buildings, carved in incredibly regular, precise patterns and designed in a similar style to the temple. Everything was bright and surreal. Nothing looked quite real.

"I wonder where this is," Tails said softly.

He got to his feet, brushing himself off (though the dirt seemed to have mysteriously disappeared from his fur as well) and starting cautiously down the path, but the place seemed empty, even as the sun shone bright directly overhead. The place didn't look abandoned - the torches still burned, the path was clean-swept and well maintained - but there was simply… nobody there. It was unnerving, as if an entire bustling city had found itself emptied of all its residents overnight.

He was wrong, he realized suddenly - there _was_ somebody here. There, just in front of the temple. At the end of the path a figure stood, only a little taller than himself, staring up at the stone steps carved into the temple's side. Tails approached a little closer, and did a double take.

" _Knuckles?_ "

No, it wasn't Knuckles - but it was certainly an echidna. Orange, wearing a patterned green skirt and various baubles and jewelry. She had her hands clasped in front of her, and coming within earshot, Tails could hear her reciting something that sounded like a mantra.

"The servers are the seven Chaos," she murmured as he stepped forward, and she shifted as she sensed his presence, turning to look at him. She had a kind-looking face, smiling softly at him. "Hello there, friend," she said, as though they'd known each other their whole lives. "How are you?"

"Uhh…." What could Tails even say to that? "Fine, I guess."

The echidna girl just smiled some more.

"What were you saying before?" he asked, feeling a little lost.

"Huh?" The girl's smile disappeared, replaced by a look of thoughtfulness. "Oh, it's something my grandmother taught me. I'm never to forget it. It goes like this…."

She turned back to face the temple, and Tails stepped closer to hear her as she intoned:

 _"The servers are the seven Chaos._

 _Chaos is power, power enriched by the heart._

 _The controller is the one who unifies the Chaos."_

The girl sighed, and turned back to him. "But I'm still not sure what it all means."

 _Seven Chaos_ … Tails mused, and as though she had heard his thoughts, she continued, "But the number seven is the same number of emeralds there are."

"Emeralds?" Tails repeated, attention caught. _Does she know what happened to the one I had…?_

She shook her head suddenly. "Forgive me, but I don't think we've ever met before." Her pleasant smile had returned. "I'm Tikal. And you are?"

Tails gulped, suddenly feeling strange as the air began to shimmer. "I'm Tails," he tried to say, but the words caught in his throat. He gasped for air as white light enveloped him once more….

* * *

 ** _Mystic Ruins - night_**

When Tails came to, his hands were once again full of emerald and frog.

Looking around, he appeared to be standing near the Mystic Ruins train platform, his workshop barely visible on the hill in the moonlight. _How did I get here?_ he thought, thoroughly confused by now. First he'd apparently teleported from the jungle to a ghostly temple, and now he was back in the Mystic Ruins…

…and, he realized, he could feel something thudding heavily through the ground.

Tails looked up to see a gigantic purple cat running toward him at full tilt, and let out a yelp of alarm. "You have my little buddy!" the cat yelled, and Tails looked down at the frog he'd forgotten he was still holding, which had begun to writhe in his grasp again.

It didn't take Tails long to realize that the cat wasn't stopping.

Tails leapt back just in time to avoid being body-slammed, but the cat tripped all the same, landing on Tails' feet and sending him toppling backwards. Both the frog and the emerald went flying out of his hands.

"Glad I found you!" came the cat's deep voice from near his feet. _Is he… talking to the frog?_ Tails sat up, wincing, in time to see the frog make an impressive leap directly onto the cat's head, then jump again immediately, seemingly heading in the direction of the coast.

"No!" the cat wailed. "Froggy!" He fixed Tails with an earnest gaze, still on his belly. "Did you see where he went? Quick, please! He's my best friend."

Tails raised an eyebrow, and simply pointed toward the coast.

The cat rolled over and somehow managed to end up back on his feet, already running in the direction Tails had pointed. "Thank you, little fox boy!"

Tails only stared after him, dumbfounded. "That was weird," he muttered.

Then he remembered - _the emerald!_ He'd dropped it in the commotion. He flipped over in a panic to look behind him, but to his relief, there it was, sitting harmlessly in the middle of the grass. His gloved hand closed around it tightly. _Perfect!_ He finally had everything he needed to complete his prototype… and find Sonic.

As the cat's wails about "Froggy" receded into the night, Tails got to his feet and ran all the way back to his workshop, vaguely grateful that whatever that vision about the echidna girl had been, it had at least saved him a long trek back through a dark jungle. Maybe he'd ask Sonic once he found him again if a Chaos Emerald had ever given him a vision like that before. Tails slipped inside the workshop's front door and flicked on the lights. The upper room was mostly bare, containing only a few smaller projects and a combination couch/bed for sleeping. He'd made sure all traces of his main project were gone from the room before Sonic had visited earlier, but now it was time to get to work.

Tails slipped into the next room, which was completely empty, and pressed a button on the side of the wall. He stood by the door as panels on the floor slid open, letting his biggest project yet rise up into the room.

"All right, emerald," Tails said, clutching it eagerly as he stared at the blue Tornado 2 sitting nearly complete in front of him. "Time to do your stuff."

* * *

 ** _Twinkle Park - night_**

Sonic had ended up on the roller coaster. He wasn't quite sure how. One moment he'd been running up the side of a building, taking a flying leap off the edge, and now he found himself here, hanging on as the coaster train went through a loop over the main path. He must have landed in an empty car on his downward arc.

The coaster weaved its way all around the park, and Sonic realized that at this pace, he and Amy would never meet back up. As they crested a high hill, he began to scan the public areas, but strangely the park seemed almost barren. Even his own coaster train, he realized, was empty save for him.

 _That robot must have got in, and they're clearing everyone out_. If that was the case, it gave him the perfect opportunity to take it out without running the risk of hurting any innocent bystanders, but it also meant he needed to find Amy fast before the robot could get to her. But even from this high, he saw no sign of her, no telltale flashes of pink or red anywhere.

Ignoring the safety rules plastered behind the handlebar in front of him, Sonic stood as the coaster crested another hill, and leapt. The momentum of the train and his jump carried him just far enough to land on a roof, and from there he rolled easily, his feet hitting the ground a moment later.

He glanced up to get his bearings and noticed a sign nearby. "Oh, _here_ were the bumper cars," he muttered.

If Amy was still in Twinkle Park, he'd find her - all he needed was a quick run around the park. He braced himself to take off, then sped down the path, the eerily empty park still flashing its lights all around him.

* * *

 ** _Twinkle Park - night_**

In the end, Amy didn't find Sonic, and Sonic didn't find Amy. _Zero_ found Amy.

She'd been tiptoeing past the swimming pool, trying to keep quiet as she looked around for Sonic and headed for the park exit, but it didn't matter - the familiar whirring of gears alerted her to Zero's presence long before she saw the thing.

"Birdie, run!" she cried, picking up her speed. "Or - fly! Whatever!"

"Chirp chirp!"

She knew she couldn't outrun Zero in a straight line, and it apparently wouldn't stop pursuing her and Birdie until it had caught them, but a crazy idea suddenly popped into her head - an idea worthy of Sonic, surely. Amy raced through the park with a new vigor, taking corners at a near-skid, determined to reach her new destination. And then she saw it, just up ahead, abandoned in the middle of a plaza - the balloon cart, with one giant yellow balloon tied to the top of it.

"Aha!" she yelled, skidding to a stop in front of it, but the whirring of gears was too close behind.

It was time to pull out all the stops.

From the depths of a pocket only Amy could reach, Amy produced her most valuable possession, her giant piko-piko hammer, and spun, swinging it with all her might.

The hammer, nearly as big as she was, hit Zero dead-on in its side, and it fell backwards, arms flailing wildly. The force of Amy's swing carried her back around and smashed the balloon cart to bits, and the string holding the yellow balloon snapped.

"Come on, Birdie!" Amy said as it began to float away. With one last swing, she smashed her hammer into the ground hard, transferring just enough force to her to launch her into the air. She did a front flip for good measure, and with one outstretched hand, caught the string of the balloon. It bobbed under her weight, but she was far lighter than the balloon cart, and after a few harrowing seconds it continued to rise, carrying her into the night sky.

"Yes!" Amy pumped her free hand into the air, Birdie twittering triumphantly beside her. She glanced down to see Zero, which had righted itself and sported a fresh new dent in its metal chassis, staring up at her impassively with its creepy red eyes. Unable to help herself, she stuck her tongue out at it once more, watching it until it was just a greenish speck in the center of the flashing lights of Twinkle Park far below.

The entire city of Station Square was spread out below her, brightly lit and glimmering with beauty in the darkness. She could see everything from here - the street she lived on, the lights of the casino district, even all the way to the city limits. "This is so beautiful!" she sighed. _If only Sonic were here to enjoy it with me…._

 _Wait._ She still needed to find Sonic! He was probably still looking for her back at Twinkle Park, where Zero was. Amy squinted down, searching for a speck of blue, but the balloon was climbing higher by the second. Twinkle Park was just a haze of lights at the edge of the city by now.

"This is taking us really high, Birdie," Amy said. The wind gusted, making them drift lazily to the side, and she shivered.

"Chirp?"

"Uh…." Amy looked up at the balloon in concern, which was swollen full of helium. "I don't think we're going to be landing for a while."

Maybe this hadn't been her best idea after all.

* * *

 ** _Twinkle Park - night_**

Sonic had done three full laps around the park, and still hadn't seen hide nor hair of Amy.

So he'd raced out of the park, past throngs of concerned-looking ex-park-goers still gathered around the entrance, and sped down the street. If Amy wasn't in the park, she had to be somewhere else in the city - and, he reasoned, this was also the perfect opportunity to keep looking for Tails.

Sonic located a highway on-ramp quickly and sped onto it, swerving around cars so fast that most likely didn't even realize he was there. He stayed on the shoulder of the highway, keeping watch over the guardrail for any sign of either of his friends. But nothing - the city was bustling at night, and there were plenty of tourists and strangers, but no Tails, and no Amy.

Sonic sighed in frustration. If they were going to be this hard to find, he would have to kick it up a notch.

Ahead, the road dipped underneath an overpass before rising again. He used the brief downward slope to gather speed, yellow lights alongside the road flashing by him in a blur, then treated the rise as a ramp, kicking off the highest point and soaring into the air. The jump carried him far enough to grab hold of a sign stretching across the highway, marking exits and highway transfers, and he swung once around the pole before letting go, taking him far higher.

He crested, then fell, and his feet found purchase on the top of a low skyscraper just beyond where the highway curved. Loath to waste his momentum, Sonic just rolled and kept running, hopping from building to building as he traveled deeper into the city's main commercial tourism district.

Lights and sound blurred around him, and for a moment he found himself simply lost in the thrill of running, objective forgotten. This was the kind of thing he loved, his greatest passion, adventure and adrenaline. He came back to himself a moment later at the sound of police sirens, racing through the street below. He didn't know what they were after, but that robot was still on the loose, likely still after Amy, and the authorities likely wouldn't take kindly to such a thing. It might be a lead.

On a stroke of inspiration, Sonic jumped feet first at the wall of a nearby building, narrowly avoiding crashing straight through a window, then pushed off sideways and upwards onto another. He managed to get to the very top of the highest skyscraper in the area this way, leaping between walls, and paused, surveying the landscape.

In front of him, several buildings away, he saw something that intrigues him greatly - a helicopter landing pad, the police helicopter still grounded, but with its blades beginning to whir.

 _Perfect_.

Sonic pushed off again, making a great leap for the next rooftop over, picking up as much speed as he could in such a short distance. The helicopter's landing skids left the pad as it began to rise, but the pad was located on a slightly shorter building than the one he was running on - he could make it.

Jumping with every bit of strength he had, the brief sensation of flight overcame him, and he whooped loudly as his fingers closed around one of the skids.

The helicopter rose further, the pilots most likely unaware of the hedgehog currently hanging off the bottom of it, and began to follow the police cars through the city. A spotlight beamed down from somewhere in the front of it, casting a bright circle of light on the city below.

Sonic didn't care who they were after - he knew who _he_ was after. And he clung on tightly as the helicopter made its way across the city, giving him a bird's eye view of everything spread out beneath him.

 _They've gotta be down there somewhere_ ….

* * *

 ** _Station Square outskirts - night_**

Gamma had been traveling across the landscape ever since it and the other E-100 series robots had been released from the Egg Carrier yesterday afternoon. Every one of them seemed to agree that their mission was demeaning. Robots equipped with cannons and tracking missiles, sent out to acquire an amphibian that Dr. Robotnik insisted was special due to its possession of a tail. Epsilon had said that its databanks suggested this was merely a genetic defect, not something of note. Gamma wasn't particularly pleased with its task either, but its overriding loyalty programming stopped it from experiencing more than a cursory amount of negative feedback as a result.

 _Serving the doctor is a priority_.

Data on frogs present in its databanks suggested that the most likely place to find one would be in the jungle surrounding Eggman's base, and that was indeed where most of the other E-100 series had begun their search - along with Gamma, initially. However, as it had pulled up a weed by its roots near the banks of a stream, an orange spark had crossed its vision, and a new idea had unexpectedly entered its processors.

 _The Emerald Coast_.

Gamma knew where the Emerald Coast was, a map of the surrounding area being present in its databanks as well. So it had left the others and begun walking, out of the jungle, past a rickety wooden train platform (and several gaping humans in wide-brimmed hats, one of whom referred to it as a "fancy servant bot"), and along the tracks, until the oceanside cliffs had begun to morph into an actual beach, complete with tide pools and shady palm trees.

It was walking along that same beach now, and had been for many hours, scanning the dark beach with infrared and finding only wet rocks and emerita crabs, when finally something caught its full attention.

A large purple cat, almost as large as Gamma itself, was sitting forlornly on a huge boulder next to one of the tide pools. A battered-looking flashlight sat next to him, providing a small amount of light in the early morning hours, and in his hands was a fishing pole, the line extending down to the pool.

"Froggy," he called out, his voice hoarse and quiet, as though he'd been at this for hours. "Come out, come out, wherever you are…."

 _Froggy?_

Frogs didn't normally live by the beach, Gamma knew that much. And Gamma wasn't programmed to believe in coincidences.

It slipped closer, rolling on the sand with the wheels attached to the back of its metal feet to avoid making noise, and would have approached immediately if the cat had not suddenly stood, his demeanor changed in an instant. "Froggy!" he cried gleefully. "Come on, little buddy, come out of that pool! That salty water is bad for you!"

He cranked the line as Gamma watched, pulled, and after a solid minute of this action, a small green shape emerged with a splash from the tide pool, dangling from the lure by its mouth. And the shape had a tail.

Gamma sprang into action. It rolled forward just as the cat reached for his catch, and grabbed the frog, tearing it from the line. The frog wriggled in its grip, but Gamma hung on doggedly. For a moment, the cat stared at Gamma dumbfoundedly, then Gamma began to roll away at speed.

"NO!" Gamma could hear scrabbling and then a splash as the cat slipped off the rock into the shallow waters. "Hold on! Come back, _please!_ "

"Mission objective acquired," Gamma said. Soft thuds on the sand followed behind it as the cat began a clumsy pursuit.

"Give me my friend back!" he yelled, but his voice was already fading as Gamma outstripped him. "I'm begging ya, please!"

Gamma continued to roll, unperturbed by the cat's distress, but an orange light flitted in front of its vision. It was the same one as before, from back in the jungle - Gamma tried to get a reading on its nature, but nothing showed up on its sensors. Gamma's vision began to fill with static - no, _light_ ….

* * *

 ** _Unknown location - unknown time_**

As the light faded, Gamma realized that it had become stationary, despite never having instructed its wheels to stop functioning.

In fact, it was standing normally on its own two feet, and the frog had disappeared from its hand. It stood on a grassy hilltop, completely alone, and before it lay a stone bridge spanning a river, leading to an island containing a large stone altar some distance away.

 _Must determine location. Accessing data_.

Gamma scanned its surroundings, comparing the visuals of the bridge and altar to local landmarks found in its databanks. The search came up empty.

 _No data found. Location unknown_.

This presented a problem.

Gamma supposed there was nothing for it but to inspect the altar, which was the only thing of note in the landscape, up close.

It rolled across the bridge, the stone feeling unnaturally smooth under its wheels as though it were not quite real, and stopped at the foot of the altar's steps. From the other side of the bridge it hadn't been apparent, but now Gamma could see that the base of the altar was surrounded by a shallow, continuous basin flowing to the brim with pure, clear water, and around the basin sat a colony of chao.

They were singing in unison, a wordless, joyful song, and appeared to be directing it toward the water. After a few moments, they went silent, and Gamma was surprised to hear the water sing back - one ringing note that almost seemed to echo, even though Gamma's aural sensors determined such a location should have had poor acoustics.

As it ran a diagnostic on its audio processor, the chao continued to sing, taking up the key of the water's note. This repeated several times - the chao singing, and the water singing back. Gamma was at a loss for how to process such a phenomenon.

"No! Don't go any closer."

A soft but firm voice called out from behind it, and Gamma spun its upper torso to face it. It came from an echidna girl, whose visual profile somewhat matched that of Knuckles in Gamma's databanks, but for her slightly smaller stature, orange-peach fur, and what appeared to be decorative clothing items covering her body. She stared up at Gamma with large blue eyes and clasped her hands behind her back, twisting one foot on the ground.

"I'm sorry, I see you must not be one of them," she said, leaving Gamma perplexed that she might have mistaken it for a chao in the first place. But the girl seemed entirely unperturbed by its appearance, as though she were merely meeting another member of her own species. She gestured to the water that the chao were still singing to. "Did you notice the presence guarding these children? He's a very loving and gentle creature."

The corners of her mouth turned up in a small smile. "These little creatures are too vulnerable without his protection, which allows them to continue singing in peace. Even I was surprised the first time I saw him…." She crossed her arms in front of her chest, as if recalling a bad memory. "But now my father wants to take their sacred home. I tried to reason with him, but it seems his heart is closed off to us all. My hope is still that one day, we may all understand each other, but he…."

The girl's voice had begun to echo. Gamma began another diagnostic on its audio processors, until it realized that light was obscuring its vision once more.

* * *

 ** _Station Square outskirts - early morning_**

By the time the balloon finally began to run out of lift and descend back into the city, Amy's fingers were numb from cold and the sky was no longer black but a dim gray. She felt relief flood through her as the ground slowly drifted closer. She didn't know how much longer she would have been able to hold on.

"Birdie," she said, exhausted. "How are you doing?"

Birdie only chirped sadly. He had taken a break from flying by resting on her shoulder, but Amy knew he realized how tired she must be by now from holding on.

As soon as her feet touched the ground, Amy released the string and collapsed onto her knees, uncaring that she had just sat in the middle of a patch of dusty dirt. _What part of the city did I land in, anyway?_ Amy raised her head to see that she must have drifted almost past the city limits - to her left was a row of houses that were small, almost suburban, and to her right she could see the train tracks, leading out of the city all the way to the Mystic Ruins, house away from Station Square.

Rubbing her hands together, trying to get some feeling back, Amy stood. Overhead, she could hear the whirling blades of a helicopter, and glanced up in vague curiosity, wondering if they'd called it out to chase down Zero.

Her eyes widened.

"SONIC!" she yelled at the top of her voice, and the blue hedgehog dangling from the landing skids looked down, somehow managing to hear her even over the cacophony of the spinning blades. As soon as he caught sight of her he waved, a cheesy grin breaking across his face.

"Figures that he'd get the fancy ride and I don't," Amy said to the sound of rapid twittering from her shoulder, but her annoyance was halfhearted. It looked like he really had been looking for her all night after all.

She watched him as the helicopter banked back toward the skyscrapers, where he seemed to be intending to land. His eyes were wide, and he was pointing and shouting something that she couldn't make out - probably explaining his plan and promising to get to her as soon as possible, she thought.

"I know!" she shouted back, unable to suppress a faint blush. Birdie was chirping in earnest.

She never heard the gears whirring.

Metal claws closed around her roughly, and she shrieked. _That robot!_ It had caught up to her after all. _This_ must have been what Sonic was trying to tell her. Amy kicked and shouted and struggled, but the robot had pinned her arms to her sides in its cold grip, Birdie pinned against her as well, chirping in terror. She couldn't get to her hammer, and she couldn't get free.

There was a rumble from nearby, and then a roar, and as Zero swung around, Amy still trying in vain to kick its metal chassis, a train arrived, speeding by them in a blur on the tracks. She realized Zero was hovering toward it and yelled, "Let us _go!_ "

Just as she thought the train would bypass them, Zero's lower jets kicked in, boosting them towards it. With its free claw, it grabbed onto the back car, and Amy gasped as the sudden inertial change snapped her head painfully to the side.

Then she saw it - the blue shape far down the train tracks, racing toward them at top speed.

"Sonic!" she shrieked. "HELP!"

* * *

 ** _Station Square outskirts - early morning_**

Sonic had seen it all from the helicopter. He'd tried to warn Amy as he watched the robot creep up behind her, but she must not have been able to hear him - and now she'd been grabbed, and the robot was getting away.

If Tails was still in Station Square… he would have to wait. Sonic couldn't let Amy be taken back to Eggman like this.

So he'd leapt off the helicopter and barely touched down on the first skyscraper's roof before he charged over the side. Foregoing any fancy tricks, Sonic took a straight run down the side of the building, letting gravity do most of the work for him and only continuing running to maintain control during his descent. Once he'd reached the bottom, he had nearly created a shockwave through the outer suburban areas of the city until he reached the track where Amy had been abducted.

She was still wailing, clutched in the robot's tight grip, as it rode the back of the train unbeknownst to the conductors. If it's on that train, it must be headed for the Mystic Ruins….

Eggman must have a base there.

" _Sonic!_ " Amy's voice carried even over the roar of the train and the wind in his ears.

"Amy! Don't worry!"

He was faster than a train, but he couldn't rescue her now. If anything caused the robot to let go or fall off, she'd be facing a fall onto train tracks at a hundred miles per hour - and while Sonic might be able to take that kind of abuse, considering he ran faster than that on a daily basis, Amy certainly couldn't. Not without serious injury, anyway.

"Let me _go_ , you bolt brain!"

Although clearly, she thought she could.

"Amy!" Sonic called again as soon as he was close enough to be heard clearly. The robot eyed him dangerously, but he ignored it. "Do you trust me?"

The robot lowered its free arm, and Sonic saw it locking a painting laser on him.

" _Of course I do!_ Now get me - "

"Then hang in there! I'll come for you, I promise!"

Sonic leapt up just as the robot's arm shot out at the place he'd been a moment before, then swerved to the side. The train didn't go further than the Mystic Ruins - he'd cut them off there, before the robot could make off with his friend.

He pushed forward, speeding up once more as Amy's voice rang out behind him, shocked and hurt, and left the train in his wake.


	7. Tornado Scramble

**_Mystic Ruins - early morning_**

As soon as the rays of the rising sun had hit Knuckles' closed eyes, he'd awoken and set out in search of a way onto Eggman's battleship. He had no real leads - no idea where it might be, or if it was even on the ground at the moment - but he had to try. The last chance he had at fixing his failure lay there - the final few shards of the Master Emerald.

At first he'd thought he might be able to use his treasure hunting instincts to locate some clue, something that would point him to the ship's location, but wandering aimlessly around the Mystic Ruins had only left him feeling lost and frustrated. Wherever Eggman's base was, it was sure to be well hidden from any random passersby - he doubted he could locate it purely by chance.

In the end, help came in the form of pure luck as Knuckles wandered the outer edges of the jungle - a huge purple cat, easily twice his size, panting heavily and running across the grass as if his life depended on it.

"Hey…" he gasped, running straight up to a bemused Knuckles. "Have you… have you seen… a green frog… with a tail? He's my buddy… and…."

Knuckles shook his head, already turning away. "Sorry, haven't seen your frog." He made to walk away, but the cat stuck a hand out, small yellow eyes boring into his.

"Please!" he said, desperation tingeing his voice. "He was kidnapped by a red robot… I've been following him for… for… uh, all the way here…."

 _Red robot_. Knuckles looked back up at the cat, his interest piqued. "Was it one of Eggman's?"

"Eggman? Uh, I don't know… but he looked real scary. Please, you gotta help me catch him! He's got my buddy!"

Knuckles considered this for a moment. This cat looked as if he'd never seen a day of fighting in his life. He was carrying a fishing pole on his shoulder, for crying out loud. On the other hand, if he really _had_ been following one of Eggman's robots, and the robot was now heading back to its master - though Knuckles had no idea what Eggman was doing kidnapping frogs from random Mobians - that could be his ticket into the base, and the airship.

Knuckles sighed. "All right," he said. "Just point me in the right direction. But _you_ have to keep up with me, I'm not stopping to sightsee."

"Oh, thank you _thank you!"_ The cat's ears perked up instantly, and he grabbed hold of Knuckles' hand, shaking it vigorously. Knuckles raised an eyebrow. "My name is Big! Big the Cat! Come on, this way!"

He stomped off into the trees with renewed vigor, and Knuckles only sighed again before following. _This Big character better know what he's doing_ ….

They ran together through the jungle, keeping an eye out for their quarry. Knuckles was refreshed from his night's sleep back on his island, so the run was not difficult for him, but he had to admit he was impressed at Big's endurance. Despite apparently having run all this way, he was still keeping up. _He must be strangely loyal to that frog of his_.

They had only ran for a few minutes before Knuckles caught sight of exactly what he had been looking for - a flash of red between the trees, artificial and shiny.

Big gasped in delight as he caught sight of it as well. "THERE HE - !"

 _"Shhh!"_ Knuckles turned his head to glare at him. "You _want_ him to hear us?"

"Oops," he whispered back, "sorry…."

They followed as close behind as they dared, Big remaining surprisingly silent as he slipped among the underbrush. Almost at the same moment Knuckles began to wonder if he lived in the wilds as well, Big whispered, "Hey, I live around here!"

 _That answers that question_.

They couldn't remain completely silent at their pace, though, and Knuckles was sure that at any moment the robots would pick up on their noise and turn to attack - but it hardly seemed to notice anything at all. It was as if it were on autopilot, clutching Big's frog in its hand and rolling along statically. The chase went on and on, until Knuckles began to doubt that it would lead them anywhere of import, when suddenly the trees opened up in front of them, and a completely new sight met their eyes.

A short ways away from the end of the tree line, the ground dropped off steeply to more jungle below. Nestled in the middle of that jungle was what appeared to be a massive metal skyscraper, reaching high into the sky - and below it, a vast amount of metal plating unobscured by trees. Knuckles had a feeling he knew exactly what lay beneath it.

"The Egg Carrier," he breathed. "I've found it - "

"Froggy!"

Knuckles had almost forgotten he had company. He sighed and turned back to Big.

"Okay, look, big guy," he said, staring him down despite being half his height, "going into one of Eggman's bases is no joke. There'll be deadly robots and security measures everywhere."

"But I gotta find Froggy!"

 _This cat and his damn pet frog_. "I'm not telling you _not_ to go. That's your choice. Just warning you." He turned back to see the robot entering an elevator at the edge of the dropoff some distance away. "Follow me if you want, but it's your head."

"Oh, thank you!" Knuckles found his hand being roughly shaken again, and sighed, pulling it back as soon as Big's grip loosened.

"And once we're in, you're on your own. I've got my own mission."

* * *

 ** _Mystic Ruins - morning_**

Sonic had reached the Mystic Ruins station only a few minutes before the train did. He could have arrived there much faster, but figured there was no use overexerting himself - he needed enough energy to be able to rescue Amy from her captor, and he was already running low on that front, having stayed up all night searching the city and hanging from helicopters. The few extra minutes before the train rolled in gave him a chance to rest up and prepare himself.

He was currently lying in wait near the front of the platform, where the robot wouldn't spot him once its ride entered the station. Sonic hoped he would be able to take it by surprise and disable it before anything happened to Amy, or any of the explorers in the area. The distant sound of the train's approach echoed in the tunnel just next to the station, and Sonic crouched, ready.

The train rolled in and hissed, coming to a stop, and a moment later the doors slid open. Two explorers exited, looking tired and bored - but Sonic couldn't see any sign of the robot.

Could his plan have backfired on him? Had the robot perhaps gotten off before the train hit the station? Sonic thought of Amy clutched in that thing's metal claw, the robot jumping off with her in the middle of nowhere and Amy thinking she'd been abandoned to her fate, and his feet began to itch.

He was on the verge of jumping out and taking off down the tunnel in search of Amy, when the familiar sound of her voice split the air in an angry yell.

"I _said_ , let us _go_ , you hunk of junk! I mean it!"

 _There!_ The robot must have let go in the tunnel after all, but now he could see it emerging from the darkness, hovering to the edge of the raised tracks and dropping down to the ground below, using its jet boosters to slow its descent. The human explorers nearby gasped in shock, pointing at the spectacle, but none of them made a move towards it. None of them would be able to take on something like that by themselves.

Sonic waited, watching the robot as it carried Amy just below his position on the tracks, and readied himself to jump down after it, when the sky went dark.

 _Oh, no_ ….

He looked up. Sure enough, it was the Egg Carrier, back for another round. His heart nearly stopped as he realized what was about to happen.

The panel on the underside of the ship slid open just as it had yesterday, and the green finger of light reached down and enveloped the robot - and Amy, who had begun to scream again. There was no more time - Sonic jumped, landing on the robot midair in the center of the green light.

"Sonic!" Amy gasped in shock.

"Give her back!" Sonic held onto the robot's head for dear life and aimed a kick at the arm holding Amy and the bird. Its jet boosters activated midair, and it spun wildly, trying to throw him off. Sonic felt his grip on the smooth metal slip - then slip further -

A claw closed around one of his spines, and he yelped in pain as it yanked hard. He lost his hold, and plummeted, hitting the ground hard.

 _"No!"_ he could hear Amy screaming above him as he saw stars, voice getting fainter all the while. "No, you idiot, let me go - _Sonic - !"_

The sound of the panel closing, cutting him off from the robot - and Amy - was like an arrow lancing through him.

Sonic shook his head, clearing his vision just in time to see the Egg Carrier yaw to the left, changing course. His mind raced frantically. He needed to get onto that ship - not only to make sure nothing happened to Amy, but to stop Eggman's plans for good. If the ship kept on its current course, it would head straight across the Mystic Ruins, and directly over the grounded Angel Island….

And just like that, he had a plan. It was a long shot, but if he could just run fast enough - and hey, who was he kidding? If anyone knew _fast_ , it was him.

Confidence restored, Sonic added a little flair after his embarrassing fall, spinning around once on the ground before using the momentum to kick himself back to his feet. A few explorers nearby gaped at him, stunned by what they had just witnessed. He gave them a thumbs up as he raced past, calling "Never fear, Sonic is here!" over his shoulder as he made for Angel Island. There was a certain mountain there just begging to be climbed….

* * *

 ** _Egg Carrier - late morning_**

When Gamma finally came back to itself, it was surprised to find itself back on board the Egg Carrier, the frog back in its hand, lined up with the rest of the E-100 series in front of Dr. Robotnik's podium as if it hadn't just witnessed the most inexplicable thing it had ever seen in its short life. It scanned its memory banks. The last recorded location was the island with the strange altar and the singing chao, but after that… its log showed that it had walked undeterred for miles. It must have kept walking the entire time, all the way back to Eggman's base and onboard the Egg Carrier, and somehow experienced a major malfunction in both its visual and audio processors along the way.

Perhaps the odd vision had had something to do with it. A brief malfunction of its databanks, constructing a glitched scene in its memory as a result? Gamma didn't know for sure, and resolved to run yet another diagnostic on its systems later to figure out the cause.

The podium lowered from the ceiling, and Dr. Robotnik stepped off. He surveyed his robots, all of which dutifully held a frog out in front of them.

He started at the far end, staring at E-104's frog. "Incorrect. You've failed me, Epsilon."

Epsilon remained silent.

Next up was E-105, Zeta, who received a "Wrong as well!" Then Delta, standing next to Gamma. Upon seeing its frog, the doctor nearly exploded.

" _Aaargh!_ You imbeciles!" He waved his fists at them in a rage as they watched silently. " _None_ of you got the right one! Did you all forget that you were supposed to bring back _the frog with a tail?_ Or are you all too stupid to follow simple instructions?"

Gamma glanced down at its own frog, which did indeed sport a tail.

"That frog contains Chaos' tail, which he needs to become complete," the doctor continued to rant on, pacing up and down the line, "and the frog has also swallowed a Chaos Emerald! Do you know how hard it was to track down this information over the last few days? And you all have the _nerve_ to - "

He stopped abruptly, going silent as his eyes alighted on Gamma's frog. Gamma remained still.

"Ah!" the doctor said. His demeanor had changed almost instantly. "That! That's it! Right there!" He showed his teeth at Gamma in a smile, and reached for the frog, taking it in one of his gloved hands. The frog began to struggle again mindlessly. "I'm proud of you, Gamma! You might even be shaping up to be my finest robotic creation yet…."

Then his gaze turned on the rest of the E-100 series, still standing motionless with their garden-variety frogs in hand.

"As for the rest of of you worthless hunks of junk…" the doctor said, his voice carrying an edge Gamma hadn't heard before. He stepped back up to his podium. "It's about time you got going."

He pulled a lever on his console, looking positively maniacal.

Instantly, beams of light appeared over the three other E-100 series robots, which began to jerk and twitch as if malfunctioning. Gamma watched as one by one, they began to fade, giving the odd appearance of stretching out into nothingness. Just before Delta faded completely, its head turned - and its gaze met Gamma's. Its eyes betrayed nothing, robotic and lifeless as they were, but the movement looked desperate. It was pleading for help.

And then it was gone.

Gamma remained absolutely, completely motionless.

"Now, Gamma!" the doctor said, walking back in front of it with a swagger, the frog still clutched in his hand. "You'll get a new assignment - an easy one, don't worry." He pointed to something behind Gamma, but Gamma remained where it was, unable to convince itself to move to look where the doctor was pointing. "Go to the room through that last door - the prison cells. In there, you'll find a little hedgehog girl and a bird. All I want for now is the bird. Now g-aagh!"

The frog had given a particularly violent wriggle, and slipped out of the doctor's grasp, landing with a _plop_ on the metal grating of the floor. "Gah! Blast that frog," the doctor muttered as it hopped away in a frenzy, jumping off the side of a railing into the nothingness below. The doctor grumbled. "Well, there's nowhere for it to go. We're in the air. It's stuck on the ship, and it'll likely head for water - we can find it later." The doctor shooed Gamma with his hands, good mood clearly spoiled. "Just go! The bird, remember?"

Gamma didn't move from where it stood until the doctor had remounted his podium and once again disappeared into the hole in the ceiling.

For some illogical reason - perhaps it was still malfunctioning - the sight of Delta's eyes as it vanished into nothingness would not leave its mind.

Finally, Gamma's servos kicked into gear, and it turned to face the direction in which the doctor had pointed. There were three doors there, all arranged in a line - he had instructed Gamma to go through the last one, but that could refer to either of the two doors on the end.

Is this the one? Gamma guessed at random, walking to the left door. It pressed a button next to it to slide it open, and stepped through.

Its foot hit a spare part, lying discarded on the metal floor.

Gamma looked up, and saw a sight it was most definitely not meant to see.

In the center of the circular room, a figure was suspended by metal arms extending from the floor and ceiling, held in the center of a kind of workstation as probes and automatic screwdrivers worked on it from all angles. Bits of the robot were scattered all over the floor, parts discarded everywhere - the thing was so disassembled Gamma couldn't tell if it was being taken apart, or rebuilt.

The scrap its foot had something stenciled onto the side - E-101.

 _Beta_.

Gamma stared up at the robot it had only seen once in its short life, which it had fought at the behest of Dr. Robotnik for a place on this ship. Its brother, the doctor had called it. It had lost the fight, such a simple thing, and now this was its fate, taken apart so as to be completely unrecognizable.

"Beta," Gamma said aloud, then silenced itself. It was not supposed to be here.

It spun immediately and walked out, the door sliding back closed behind it. Just ahead, a cleaning robot rolled past, and turned its optic sensors on Gamma. "This was the wrong room," it said, even as it tried to understand why it felt the need to justify the simple action of walking out of a door to a cleaning robot in the first place.

The other robot simply ignored its statement and walked on. Gamma turned its head to look at the other doors. The prison cells must have been past the right door, not the left.

Deliberately forcing itself to focus its attention on the task ahead, and not what it had just witnessed, Gamma headed for the door.

* * *

 ** _Egg Carrier prison - noon_**

Amy huddled against the wall of her cell, as far away from the bars as she could manage. She'd been dumped here by Zero not long ago, Birdie falling limp into her hands after so long of being crushed against her by its metal claw, and then the robot had left the room, the door _whooshing_ shut behind it. And now they were alone.

Birdie shivered quietly in her hand, looking about as bad as Amy felt. She rubbed a finger gently along the top of his head, trying to calm him down. "There, there." He had escaped once from this ship, and though she couldn't ask him what had happened to him here to terrify him so badly, it couldn't be easy to be a prisoner here once again.

Amy knew, for this reason, that she had to stay strong for the both of them. She'd almost thought Sonic abandoned them both back on the train leading out of Station Square - but he'd come back, with his rescue attempt at the Mystic Ruins. Even though he'd failed, it gave Amy hope, more than she would have thought. He'd come for her before, and she was confident he would again.

It didn't mean that she didn't despise being stuck in here in the meantime.

The whisper of a door opening brought her back to her senses, and she held Birdie closer as a robot came into view - easily more than twice her size, painted red and black, with a cannon on the end of one arm. It stared down at her with gleaming green eyes, and she only scowled, hiding any fear she may have felt.

"What do _you_ want?"

It extended its non-cannon hand in response, palm up. When it spoke, its tone was flat, emotionless. "Give me the bird."

 _The bird?_ Amy hugged Birdie close to her chest, where he cowered. "No way!"

"Do not resist," it said, extending its hand further. "Hand over the bird."

"I said NO!"

The robot paused, then retracted its hand slightly. "Why not?"

"None of your business why not!" Amy could feel herself becoming more fired up by the second. She got to her feet, still hugging Birdie close, and did her best to stare the robot down. "You tell _me_ why _you_ want him!"

There was a long pause, then: "Data unavailable."

Well, that wasn't the response she was expecting.

"You don't even know?" she said. "Then why are you asking me for him? Is it because Eggman told you to?"

The robot just stood in place, silently staring. It almost looked like it was thinking things over, and Amy got the funny feeling that this might even by the first time it had encountered the notion of rebellion. An idea popped into her head.

"I know you might hurt us both," she began. Birdie peeped one eye open, watching the exchange. "Don't you know how bad I feel, locked up in here? How bad Birdie feels?" Amy stepped closer, heart pounding. "I just met him yesterday, and I told him I'd help him no matter what. That's why I'm here."

"Illogical."

"I was helping a friend!"

"You have feelings for something you know nothing about." Amy could hear whirring coming from inside it, different from the ominous gear noise of Zero - it sounded more like cooling fans kicking into high gear. "Why try to save that which is useless to you?"

"He's not useless! He's my friend. And when people stand by their friends, good things can happen!" Amy stared hard into its eyes, even as the action seemed to throw it off further. It almost seemed predisposed to stress, as though something else had unbalanced it.

"I feel sorry for you," Amy said, and meant it. "Eggman failed to give you feelings. Love isn't in your programming…."

Her hands were empty. For a second Amy panicked, thinking she'd dropped Birdie. But no - he was flying, flying _forward_ through the bars of the cell, and came to a halt in front of the robot's face, chirping with determination.

"Birdie, _no!_ " It was over, the robot would grab him and take him away and she would have failed to keep her promise -

But the robot stayed still, its eyes fixed on the bird. For a long, tense moment, none of them moved, save for the flaps of Birdie's wings keeping it suspended in the air. Amy held her breath, waiting.

The robot spun abruptly away from Birdie, stepping to the side. "Go," it said. "Escape."

Amy had to wonder if she'd heard correctly.

"What?"

It slammed its hand down on a nearby console, and the bars retracted into the ceiling, leaving Amy gaping in the middle of the empty cell. "Get going!"

There was more emotion in those two words than Amy had heard in the rest of its words combined.

"You're… letting us go?" Amy stepped out of the cell, hardly daring to believe it was going to be that easy.

"It is dangerous here," the robot said, its back to her, its hand still on the console. "Hurry. We will be arriving at the doctor's base in the Mystic Ruins soon."

In spite of its urgency, Amy couldn't help a small smile spreading over her face as Birdie alighted on her shoulder. "You're not like the other robots, huh?" she said. It remained facing away, but she knew it was listening. "You've got a soft spot inside that metal frame of yours."

"Hurry!"

"This makes us friends," she said decisively, turning towards the exit. "And I'll be there for you one day the way you've been here for me and Birdie now."

Then she began to run, hoping against hope that she could find a way off the ship before she was caught once again.

* * *

 ** _Red Mountain - noon_**

The heat was beginning to get to Sonic. It wasn't like it was the first time he'd ever raced into a volcano, but as he leapt over pools of lava, racing up rock walls and heading for the rim up above, he found himself sweating - and maybe not just from the heat.

From in here, he couldn't see the Egg Carrier. He had no way of knowing if it was still just overhead, or if it was about to bypass him completely. The thought spurred him onward, lending him speed, and his feet actually left small smoking imprints in the hot rock as he raced ahead at the highest speed the cramped interior of a volcano would allow him.

He coughed in the fumes, and then saw it ahead - a sliver of natural light shining out of a crack near the top of the wall. Sonic knew he could reach it - if he just took a running leap….

A rock slab just ahead was tilted at the perfect angle, almost like a ramp. Sonic pushed, gathering as much speed as possible, then leapt right at the tip of the crag - boiling lava bubbled beneath him as he flew over the gap, and his fingers caught just at the bottom of the crack.

Feet scrabbling on the rock for purchase, he pulled himself up and squeezed through, breathing in fresh air as he emerged outside. Above, the sky had become overcast during the chase - and there, passing directly above Red Mountain, was the Egg Carrier. He'd made it after all.

But it was flying too high.

Sonic looked around frantically, looking for another way up, a higher slope, but it was no use. He'd run all the way to the peak, and now there was nowhere else to go. He stood at the precipice, hands balled into fists at his sides, frustrated and feeling helpless. There was no other way onto the Egg Carrier. He'd failed.

As he watched the Egg Carrier begin to recede into the distance, one of his ears twitched. There was a strange buzzing noise coming from somewhere behind him. Sonic shook his head in irritation, thinking it must be a fly, but the sound continued. He turned - and his eyes went wide.

"Hey, Sonic!" Tails cried, waving happily from the pilot's seat of a shiny new blue biplane. Sonic's name was painted along the side, Tails' namesakes depicted as a graphic on the tail. Sonic felt his face break out in a massive grin. _No way_ ….

"Tails!" he called back, waving. "Glad to see you're okay, buddy!" The plane dipped, circling the peak, and Sonic braced himself on the small bit of rim he had. When it came back around, he took a running leap, and landed smoothly on the fuselage in the back, where he'd always stood on his old plane.

"Welcome aboard the Tornado 2!" Tails said, leveling out and aiming the nose at the Egg Carrier ahead.

"So this was your big project?" The plane was slightly bigger than the original Tornado, and Sonic could almost feel the extra power thrumming through the engines. "The one you needed a Chaos Emerald for?"

"Yup!" Tails increased speed. "I wanted to show it off to you I a grander fashion, but I suppose this will have to do."

"Are you kidding? What better way to show it off than by pitting it against old Eggy?"

Tails only laughed. "Well then, hold on," he said. "This baby has a few more tricks up her sleeve."

* * *

 ** _Egg Carrier - early afternoon_**

Gamma had remained standing still since the hedgehog girl had run away. It had released her and the bird. Its master had give it a direct order, and it had gone against it.

It still couldn't process why. She had said things to it, things that opened up completely new avenues in its processors. Things about friendship, about caring… it didn't know how to process this new information.

And how could it return to Dr. Robotnik empty-handed? This was the first time it had failed at a task assigned to it, and it had just seen what the doctor did to failures.

Gamma might have stood there forever, endlessly indecisive about what to do, had a red alert not began to sound at that exact moment.

* * *

 ** _Above the Mystic Ruins - early afternoon_**

Tails felt free and light as he piloted the Tornado 2 after the rapidly expanding Egg Carrier's engines. He'd worked hard all night on finishing his creation, at one point drifting off into sleep and waking up with the imprint of a wrench on his cheek, but it was worth it - it was finished, and running beautifully. The Chaos Emerald was alit with energy and humming pleasantly in its compartment in the main engine at the front of the plane - whatever had caused his test plan to malfunction, the flaw wasn't present in this one.

He had been flying around for hours, first heading for Station Square, and upon finding no telltale signs of Sonic's presence there, back to the Mystic Ruins. He'd been lucky enough to catch sight of the Egg Carrier as it made its getaway from the main ruins, and even luckier to spot Sonic on top of Red Mountain. And now he and his friend were reunited, and going after their enemy together once more.

Sonic filled him in about Amy's capture by Eggman's robot during the short flight to their target. "We need to be careful of the fortress' main laser," he added as they reached the airship.

Tails shuddered slightly, the memories of what had happened to the first Tornado still fresh in his mind. "Don't worry," he said as the first wave of new fighters began their approach. "We shouldn't even have to deal with it. We'll land from the back this time!"

The fighters went down in a hail of bullets, as did the second wave. The small amount of fire that the fighters actually managed to land on his plane pinged off harmlessly, and Tails couldn't help grinning. _Stronger armor, check_.

He pulled up, avoiding the jets of fire coming from the engines as he had before, and prepared to land - only for the plane to be rocked by a surprisingly strong blast. Tails yelped in shock.

"Looks like Eggman upgraded his ride too!" Sonic yelled.

He was right - the turrets they had destroyed yesterday had been replaced, and these new ones were definitely bigger. Baring his teeth, Tails fired the plane's gun into the mouth of the closest one. It began to smoke, but a second later another projectile exploded out of it, and he narrowly managed to dodge the plane to the side.

"Time to test out my new toy," he muttered, and flipped a switch. This time, as another turret took aim, Tails locked his sights on it and fired again - the lock-on missile burst out of the front of the plane, spiraled toward the turret, and demolished it in a shower of scrap.

 _"Nice!"_ Sonic called from the back. "Bet that baby will come in handy!"

Tails glanced ahead and saw more turrets, all upgraded like the one he'd just destroyed. "Yeah, but that's not all." There was no way they would be able to destroy them all one by one without getting hurt or running out of missiles, which meant Tails needed a different tactic.

He swerved to the side until they were cruising directly alongside the Egg Carrier, in a dead zone free of any turrets. "Sonic, I need you to hold on tight! And I mean that _literally!"_

"Uhh… okay."

As soon as he was confident Sonic wasn't pulling another "no hands" trick, Tails flipped open a panel on his console and punched the button behind it. The top and bottom wings of the plane separated, spinning and folding over into an X shape with the body of the plane at the center. Sonic let out a yell of surprise as the tail briefly separated from the fuselage and resituated itself at a higher angle. Tails felt the second, hidden engine kick in at the bottom of the plane, grinned, and punched it.

They shot forward at an incredible velocity, Sonic whooping in excitement even as (Tails imagined) he had to hang on for dear life. Tails pulled up, performing a quick loop and a roll before leveling out. They were face to face with the Egg Carrier now - exactly where they had been the first time, before the crash.

"Uh, Tails? I thought we weren't gonna - "

"Just trust me!" he said, even though he felt shaky from nerves. He only had one shot to pull this off.

The front of the fortress was free of turrets - Tails had seen this on their first pass. The turrets prevented landing from the back; the laser was a deterrent from the front. But Tails had installed these missiles last-minute for a reason.

The giant panels on the front of the ship began to slide open once more, and Tails' thumb hovered over the trigger.

As soon as the cannon's core was visible, he locked on. "Fire!" he yelled, squeezing the trigger just as the interior of the cannon's mouth lit up.

The missile flew, and Tails pulled up hard.

Just as the first beam of light began to extend from the cannon, the missile disappeared into its mouth, and a few seconds later a loud explosion reached his ears. The laser light faded abruptly as the entire front cannon disintegrated from the inside out, and Tails pumped a fist into the air, screaming "Yeah!"

"Nice shot!" Tails could hear the grin in Sonic's voice. "Looks like we're clear to land on the front deck!"

But as they descended toward the deck and Tails began to cut their speed, he reached for the switch for the landing gear, and realized there was one major flaw in his plan.

"Uh oh…."

"What is it, Tails?"

Tails cringed inwardly and tipped the nose of the plane up slightly as the deck zoomed up toward them. "There's no landing gear in this mode - and no time to change back. Coming in too hot!"

"WHAT?"

The bottom wings scraped along the metal of the top deck with an earsplitting screech, causing Tails to let go of the yoke to clap his hands over his ears. The Tornado 2 rocked, then the nose tilted back down and hit the deck hard, skidding to a painful and messy stop.

Tails jerked against his safety restraints, and coughed as momentum ceased and he was able to reorient himself. Looking over the side of the heavily tilting Tornado 2, he could see Sonic lying facedown on the deck, clearly having been thrown from the fuselage during the landing.

"Sonic!" he said, unbuckling his harness and scrambling out of the pilot's seat. Sonic pushed himself to his hands and knees and groaned.

"May not… have been your best landing, buddy," he said, getting to his feet and wincing.

"Sorry…."

"Whoa," Sonic said as he stared out across the deck. Around them the sky had gone from overcast to downright stormy, thunder echoing distantly from above. "This thing is huge! It looked smaller from the air."

It really had. But Tails shook his head. "No time to gawk, Sonic. You said they took Amy here?"

"Yeah - "

A familiar voice cut him off, booming out across the entire ship from strategically placed loudspeakers. "Don't get too many ideas, you fools!" Eggman said, cackling. "You may have damaged my laser cannon, but you have yet to see the real power of this vessel!"

Sonic snorted. "Yeah, that's what he said about Chaos, and look how that turned - "

"Allow me to give you a little demonstration!"

And the entire deck shifted under their feet.

* * *

 ** _Egg Carrier rear deck - afternoon_**

Knuckles had left Big back near where they had first snuck aboard the ship. He'd been creeping around since then, remaining hidden in a crawlspace somewhere near the rear of the ship, until he'd felt the engines begin to thrum with power and the fortress lift off the ground. He could sense the remaining emerald pieces somewhere nearby, but he couldn't risk getting caught before he found them.

He'd had a lucky break in the form of a red alert just a few minutes ago. Presumably, all personnel on board - likely nothing more than the doctor's own mindless metal creations - had rushed to their stations, ready to deal with whatever threat was being posed. Perhaps it was even that cat, having been found in his search for his frog. Knuckles felt a twinge of guilt, having agreed to get Big onto the carrier in the first place - but he couldn't go back now. The emeralds were nearby and those were his priority.

But now, as he walked along the empty rear deck, something was happening. He could hear Eggman's voice booming across the ship, but aimed as it was toward the front deck, Knuckles couldn't make out what he was saying. He frowned. At least this seemed to confirm that whatever-it-was wasn't Big - there was no way he could have made his way to the front of the ship in that amount of time.

Then the deck shuddered under his feet, and startled, Knuckles braced himself against a nearby wall.

He watched in shock as the entire middle section of the ship began to rise, extending two massive wings from the center until they hung over the sides of the ship. More rose from beyond it, blocking off the path between the front and back of the ship, at least via the upper path.

"Ugh," he muttered. Of course this thing had to change shape and make things more complicated just as he was starting to get his bearings.

Then he felt it - the pull. It was coming from the newly-raised section of the ship, and Knuckles' heart leapt. The final shards had to be in there!

"All right," he said, starting a brisk pace for the center of the ship. It was time to finish this and put things right - for good, this time.

* * *

 ** _Egg Carrier forward deck - afternoon_**

"Whoa!" Tails said, staring up at the massive section that had risen in the middle of the ship, cutting them off from the rear deck. "It transformed! Did you see that?"

Sonic shot him a look, hoping to prevent him from going off on a technical tangent. "Yeah, but this makes it harder for us to get to the bridge at the back of the ship."

"I bet you weren't expecting that, Sonic, now were you?" Eggman's voice continued to echo out across the entire ship. "There's only one way to get to me now… and that's through the Sky Deck! I doubt if even you can make it!"

Eggman cackled dramatically, and Sonic just rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, we'll see about that," he called out, though he didn't know if Eggman could even hear him from where he was. He turned back to Tails. "You up for it, buddy?"

"Obviously!" Tails ran on ahead, straight toward the Sky Deck, and Sonic only chuckled lightly to himself before following. The kid was eager, that was for sure.


	8. General Offensive

**_Egg Carrier interior - afternoon_**

Ever since entering the Egg Carrier, Big had been on his own. The nice echidna had left him behind shortly after they had snuck on board, but Big didn't mind. The other guy seemed to have something else on his mind, and anyway, after all that had happened, Big worried that an unfamiliar face might just scare Froggy off once again.

This time, he was determined to find his friend and go home.

Thus, when he'd turned a corner and run into a small robot with a cannon on its head, and it had whirred at him threateningly, he hadn't hesitated to punch it. It felt surprisingly good to let loose, he thought as he ran along the next three empty hallways and shook the pain out of his punching hand, although maybe punching solid metal hadn't been his best idea of the day.

But when an alert had begun to sound, all the robots - even the harmless custodian ones - had vanished. It seemed there was something big taking place up top, a theory supported by the fact that Big nearly toppled over as the entire ship shook violently.

"What was that?" he said aloud, but he didn't have time to find out. He realized that from here, there was a faint but familiar scent on the air - Froggy.

Froggy had been here!

He ran down the hallway, following his nose, until he encountered a large and important-looking door, labeled "Hot Shelter" by a sign hanging above. He adjusted his belt and hoisted his fishing rod over his shoulder again. If he knew his friend, he would have sought out water, even in his strange delirious state. And when Big pressed the button next to the door and it slid open, the air that escaped was decidedly warm and humid.

"All right, little buddy," he said, stepping inside. "I'm coming for you."

* * *

 ** _Hot Shelter - afternoon_**

Amy, meanwhile, had ended up in the Hot Shelter without even meaning to.

She had no idea how to navigate a vessel this large. Big city, no problem. But even twist and turn of the hallways of the ship only confused her more - and most of it seemed to be machinery, Figures, she thought, since most of Eggman's crew would be robots anyway. Still, she found the place drab and depressing, and needed to find a way out, quickly.

Amy reached a room full of gears, twenty times taller than she was, and gasped. "Look at this place, Birdie! It's _huge!"_ She realized quickly that the only way out of here was up, and an idea popped into her head.

She hopped onto one of the massive gear spokes and rode it up, taking a look around. This place was almost too humid to handle, even for a beach girl like her - she could feel sweat soaking through her dress. "Ugh," she muttered. "What kind of ship doesn't have a simple thermostat?"

She reached the upper catwalks and followed them to another door, this one labeled "Monitor Room." "What do you suppose is in here, Birdie?" she said, pressing the button next to it. Birdie just chirped as the door opened to reveal what she supposed she should have expected - a giant room whose walls were lined with floor-to-ceiling video monitors, all displaying only red alert messages.

There had to be a way out through here. She stepped further into the room, looking around for another door, when suddenly the one behind her slammed shut. Amy whirled just as every screen in the room went dark.

She hugged Birdie close to her, heart beginning to pound.

Then the screens lit back up one by one, and she nearly let out a scream at what was displayed on them. Every single one held an image of Zero, inflated to three times its normal size, staring down at her silently.

This must be its payback for the House of Mirrors, she thought in apprehension.

She turned slowly in the center of the room, staring at each screen in turn. It had to be planning an ambush - but which screen would it emerge from…?

Something exploded behind her, and she whirled to see Zero charging straight through the tangled wires of the now-destroyed screen, straight for her. She let out a scream for real this time, produced her hammer, and swung furiously - it missed, but the swing caused Zero to dodge and kept it off balance just long enough for her to charge past it into the new passage it had just revealed to her. She could already hear its gears whirring as it kept close behind, claws grabbing at the air.

"Get away from me!" she yelled as she ran. "Haven't you already done enough, you stupid robot?"

* * *

 ** _Sky Deck - afternoon_**

Sonic raced along the pathway high above the rest of the Sky Deck, a long fall to the bottom awaiting him if he slipped. Tails hovered above him, managing to keep pace nicely as he cut corners Sonic couldn't have. _He's gotten better at that_ , Sonic noted, leaping up to avoid the whirring blades of one of Eggman's trademark spinner robots and slamming into it spines first, cracking it open and leaving it sparking and broken in his wake.

"Sonic!" Tails called, pointing. "Up there! Some sort of cargo area."

Sonic looked up, and sure enough - just ahead the space opened up, and even from here he could see crates swinging boxes around on their hooks, robots loading cargo from one place to another, everything chaotic and frenzied. He grinned. This would make a fun playground.

"Come on!" he yelled, leaping over a gap and spin dashing into another robot. "We can make it through there easy!"

* * *

 ** _Sky Deck - late afternoon_**

Knuckles found himself vexed by a box.

A _box_ , of all things. His senses were going nearly haywire, pulling him directly to this huge metal box, but it was stuck - wedged into a tight space in the wall, unable to be budged no matter how hard he pulled.

Growling, Knuckles sat back and stared at it. There had to be a way to move this box. The emerald shard had gotten stuck behind it _somehow_ , so it hadn't been here the entire time. This looked like a cargo area, for crying out loud - there had to be something.

Glancing above, something caught his eye. Knuckles punched his fist into a nearby wall and climbed until he could leap back and land on the platform he'd seen. Sure enough, it was a control stick of some kind, extending upward almost past his head and just begging to be pulled. He reached for it, then hesitated, thinking twice. The label next to it read "Ship Tilt Controls," and if he tilted it too far, who knew what might happen to the ship….

But he didn't really have a choice if he wanted to get to the emerald shard. Sighing, he grabbed hold firmly, then gave it a gentle tug to the left.

And gravity flipped sideways.

* * *

 ** _Hot Shelter - late afternoon_**

Amy screamed.

She was falling - the floor had suddenly tilted out from under her, and now as far as she was concerned, the wall was the floor.

She landed with a pained "oomph," and then realized after a moment that the sound of Zero's gears had ceased. Amy looked all around to make sure, but it was simply gone. It had almost caught up to her a second ago - it must have fallen to a worse fate than her.

Deciding not to question this stroke of luck, Amy got back to her feet and checked that Birdie was with her, still fluttering over her shoulder and letting out concerned peeps. "I'm fine," she said, dusting herself off and starting to run again, the gears of the ship's inner workings still grinding away far above her head now. "But we gotta get to someplace safer in case that happens again!"

* * *

 ** _Sky Deck - late afternoon_**

"Gravity hasn't actually been _altered_ ," Tails chattered on, his voice betraying his nervousness as his twin tails kept him aloft. "You see, the ship clearly spin around a central point. I wasn't standing on the deck like you were - the entire ship flipped around me. I'm pretty sure the direction of the ship's tilt has just been changed, and in a moment, it will - "

"Tails?" said Sonic.

"Y-yeah?"

Sonic's grip tightened on the railing he was holding onto for dear life, to avoid falling thousands of feet off the edge of the ship.

"I. Am. Sideways."

"Right, sorry."

* * *

 ** _Sky Deck - late afternoon_**

In hindsight, Knuckles' plan hadn't been the best he'd ever come up with.

He'd gotten the shard when the box slid out of the hole, sure. But now the ship was flying fully sideways, and nearly every box in the cargo area had gone tumbling, smashing against the opposite wall, their contents flying everywhere. Knuckles had barely avoided being smashed by tons upon tons of metal death traps.

He was currently, laboriously, climbing his way back to the control stick, but the complete reversal of gravity had left him disoriented, making the task much harder than it needed to be. He could still feel another emerald shard nearby, and he wasn't going to be able to find it with the place still in this sort of state.

He grabbed another railing, grunting. "Never again," he muttered.

* * *

 ** _Hot Shelter - late afternoon_**

The bad thing about sudden shifts in gravity is that when Big fell, he fell hard.

And he fell _far_ , too. He'd fallen all the way through a circular room sideways, and landed painfully against a huge panel of glass, which miraculously hadn't shattered under his considerable weight.

His face was currently smooshed up against the glass, but as he tried to right himself, his eye caught movement. Big realized with a start that the entire area beyond was filled with water, and swimming in it, looking unharmed, was….

"FROGGY!"

And then the ship tilted again.

* * *

 ** _Sky Deck - early evening_**

Knuckles panted as he rested on the tilt control stick, having pulled it carefully back to its neutral position. He wasn't planning on touching the thing again anytime soon.

But he could still feel that other emerald piece nearby. There could only be one or two more, he was sure of it. He leapt off the platform, gliding downwards, and began to make his way back across the cargo field, punching any of Eggman's robots who dared get near him.

"Yo! Knuckles!"

Knuckles' head snapped up to find the source of the voice, and was somewhat surprised to see none other than Sonic and Tails, waving down at him from a catwalk high above.

"Didn't think I'd be seeing you guys here!" he called back up, then added under his breath, "though I suppose I should have expected it."

"Amy's here too somewhere! We're here to rescue her! By the way," Sonic added, "did you feel that weird gravity shift a minute ago? Nearly threw me off the ship."

Knuckles blanched and rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah… sure weird how that happened."

"Wanna join us?"

Knuckles shook his head. "I still have that unfinished business to take care of!"

Sonic shrugged. "Suit yourself. See ya around, pal!"

Knuckles watched him race off, Tails flying close behind, and let out a breath. _Stupid tilt controls._

* * *

 ** _Hot Shelter - early evening_**

Big had realized something very important as soon as he recovered from hitting the ground again after a second gravity shift: he was standing in the middle of the engine coolant drainage system.

And Froggy was still trapped in the water beyond.

So Big, feeling very clever, located a switch in the center platform of the room labeled "Emergency Drainage Switch - do not activate while engines are in operation."

Were the engines operating? Who _cared?_

Big threw the switch and watched as the glass panels retracted into the ground, letting the steaming hot water pour into the room around him. He could see Froggy floating not too far away, but Big didn't fancy hopping into the water himself. He sighed, sitting at the edge of the platform and flipping his fishing pole into position.

"Guess we're doing this the old fashioned way," he said, casting his line.

* * *

 ** _Sky Deck - early evening_**

Sonic heard Tails gasp behind him as they left the cargo area - and Knuckles - behind.

"Look out!"

The fortress' cannons certainly looked far bigger from the ground than in the air - and it looked like they were designed for more than just anti-aircraft purposes.

 _"Run!"_ Tails yelped, and Sonic didn't need telling twice. The huge projectile barely missed them, impacting hard on the deck and leaving behind a large black scorch mark.

"Close one!"

They darted around it, splitting up, and as he'd hoped it would, the cannon targeted Sonic first. He raced around it, slow enough to keep it locked onto him, but just fast enough to outrun every blast.

"Tails, you gotta find a way to destroy this thing!" he said, as another wave of superheated air hit his back.

"Oh - right!"

Sonic didn't know how much longer he could keep this dance up. The cannon was learning as it watched his movements, he was sure of it - he barely managed to jump back in time as it aimed a blast at where he was going to be, rather than where he currently was.

Sonic!" he heard Tails yell. "Run towards me!"

 _"What?"_

"Just trust me!"

Sonic took off again, darting around two more blasts from the cannon, heading for the sound of Tails' voice. A flash of yellow crossed his vision, and he skidded to a stop next to his friend, spinning to stare up at the cannon. It turned toward them, and Sonic could see it preparing to fire directly onto them.

"Anytime now would be good, Tails!"

In response, Tails let out a long, loud battle cry, and Sonic turned to look - and watched in disbelief as Tails, standing on top of a broken robot, aimed his borrowed rocket launcher directly into the cannon's mouth and fired.

The kickback sent him toppling backwards, but his rocket did the job - just as the cannon began to fire, the rocket his its projectile dead on, and the resulting explosion took out the cannon entirely. The blast knocked Sonic back as well, and he landed in a heap next to Tails, who was lying on the ground looking slightly shell-shocked.

Sonic began to snort with laughter as Tails looked at him sheepishly. "That," he said, "was the coolest thing I have ever seen you do."

"Really?"

"Yeah, really." Sonic stood and offered his disheveled friend a hand. "Now get up - we still gotta get to Amy!"

* * *

 ** _Hot Shelter - evening_**

Amy had run as far as she could, endured another shift in gravity which brought the ship back to normal.., and she was exhausted.

The hallways had finally begun to look less industrial, and she came to a stop and doubled over, panting. Birdie chirped at her from her shoulder.

"Sorry," she gasped. "Just… need a minute…."

She put her back against the wall and slid down until she was sitting on the floor. She'd been on adventures before, sure, but none so strenuous as this. It was quite the wake up call.

An orange spark flitted into her vision, and she yelped, thinking it would burn her. But all it did was spin hypnotically around her - and a second later, her vision began to white out….

* * *

 ** _Unknown location - unknown time_**

The light cleared, and Amy gasped.

She was no longer in the Egg Carrier's halls - she was not even still sitting. She found herself standing on grass, a bright blue sky overhead, and before her a stone bridge spanning a river, leading to what appeared to be a stone altar on an island.

"What's this place?" she asked of Birdie, and then realized Birdie wasn't even there - she was alone.

 _This is so weird_ ….

All the tiredness was gone from her body, as though she'd just woken up from a particularly refreshing nap, and the air was clear and fresh. She supposed there was nothing for it - she raced forward across the bridge, intending to have a look at the altar. Maybe it held some sort of clue as to how she'd ended up here.

However, when she approached, something even more intriguing caught her eye. At the base of the stone steps was a group of chao, more than she'd ever seen in one place before - she'd visited the resort's chao garden before, but there were only a few there, nothing like this colony that stood before her. And standing in front of them was an echidna girl, much like Knuckles in shape but slenderer and covered in orange-peach fur, roughly-carved but pretty jewelry adorning her wrists and throat. She watched the chao almost nervously, and they, her.

"You're the… chao," she said softly. At the sound of her voice, several of the chao squeaked in alarm and one tripped over its own feet trying to run away. The girl looked stricken and backed up several steps.

"Please, don't be afraid!" she said, raising her hands to shoulder height. "You're safe with me, I promise."

Slowly, the squeaks stopped, and the chao regarded her again, with curiosity this time. Amy watched in fascination as one approached the girl, getting closer and closer, until it was nearly at her feet. Then it raised its arms to her.

"Aww!" Amy couldn't help cooing, expecting that she would be noticed, but no one seemed to hear her. The echidna girl reached down to pick up the chao, and held it gently in her arms. It closed its eyes in contentment and let out a high-pitched "Chao chao!"

It was like a signal. Instantly, all the other chao crowded around her, grabbing at her skirt in curiosity and trying to climb her legs. She laughed in delight, scooping up another in her arms.

Then a single, pure note rang out across the island.

Everyone went briefly motionless, and Amy noticed that something was happening to the shallow pool of water surrounding the altar. It almost looked like the water was rising, gaining shape - standing up on its own two legs….

The world brightened, and Amy's vision was consumed with white light once again.

* * *

 ** _Hot Shelter - evening_**

The first thing Amy became aware of was rapid twittering in her ear.

"Uh… Birdie?" Amy said, receiving a confirmatory chirp. She was sitting in the same place she had been before the vision, the hiss of machinery once again audible from where she sat on the cold metal grating. "Wow. Did I pass out or something?"

"Chirp chirp!"

Well, that had certainly been weird. Amy had never seen anything quite like it in her life.

"Sorry, Birdie!" She got to her feet, dusting herself off. "I shouldn't have gone off daydreaming at such an important time." She looked around once again, realizing that one side of the hall blew cooler, drier air her way, and began to run once more.

"Come on! We gotta find our way out of here!"

* * *

 ** _Egg Carrier interior - evening_**

"Gamma! Gamma!"

Dr. Robotnik's voice sounded from a loudspeaker next to where Gamma stood. It had dutifully reported to battle stations once the first red alert had sounded, vaguely grateful for the distraction, but so far, no enemies had come its way. In contrast to its earlier frustration at not being put to use for battle purposes, now it found itself perfectly content to stand around and do nothing.

It seemed that would not save it from its master wishes after all, however.

"Gamma, there's trouble brewing at the rear deck. You're my most heavy-duty fighting robot on board. Get here quickly before anything happens!"

Gamma hesitated.

"Did you hear me, Gamma?"

"…yes, Dr. Robotnik."

"Good. Hurry it up!"

It began to move, rolling away down the hall, but for the first time, its continuous mantra of "Serving the doctor is a priority" began to falter.

* * *

 ** _Egg Carrier interior - evening_**

Sonic and Tails finally dropped down from the outer areas of the Sky Deck into an interior area of the ship - scuffed up, bruised, and lightly toasted from the cannon explosion, but alive.

Sonic yawned and stretched, hoping Eggman was watching from a hidden security camera. "Heh. Is that it?"

Tails shook his head. "Sonic, let's find the bridge. It's probably somewhere above us - we just have to get up to the deck."

Sonic glanced around. This seemed to be some sort of central room, with a podium in the center. He eyed the controls, then looked up to see a hole in the ceiling directly above it, and smiled. "No problem."

* * *

 ** _Unknown location - unknown time_**

Big the Cat blinked away the white light that had been shining into his eyes. Just a few moments ago, he had successfully fished Froggy out of the coolant water surrounding him, and begun to dance for joy. He was reunited with his friend once more, there was no one to steal him away from Big this time, and even a little orange firefly had decided to join in on the celebration!

But now Big inexplicably found himself standing in front of a stone altar, surrounded by a shallow, artificial pool of clear water. He had no idea how he had ended up in this place, which was sunny, bright, and fragrant with flower blossoms, a stark contrast to the flying fortress he'd been on just a minute ago, but now he had even more pressing concerns - Froggy was missing from his arms.

"No! Froggy!" He looked around frantically. If Froggy was anywhere, he would be in this water - but then he noticed something else that he had somehow missed at the first glance. A little orange echidna stood in front of the altar, gazing upward along the stone steps to the top.

"Is it… all right for me to be here?" she said softly, hands clasped in front of her.

The water rippled outward, and Big swore he heard a note of music emanate from its surface as if in response.

"So you… trust me?" She looked further up, and Big, following her gaze, caught sight of seven radiant gems sitting atop stone pillars around the altar - including a yellow one that looked very much like the lucky charm that Froggy had swallowed at the beginning of this mess.

"So these are the seven sacred emeralds…" the echidna murmured to herself, beginning to walk up the stone steps. Big, not knowing what else to do, followed her. She didn't seem to notice his presence.

At the top of the steps, she halted and gasped, and Big did too once he realized what she was looking at - a massive green emerald, even bigger than he was, sitting upright and balancing on its point in the center of the altar. The girl's eyes shone in its light. "Could it be?" she said, astonishment evident in her tone as she spoke rapidly to herself. "The servers are the seven Chaos - the seven Chaos _Emeralds_ \- unified by one that is the controller…. Could this - _this_ emerald - be that one?"

Big no longer understood what she was talking about, but perhaps it didn't matter, as the white light rose and briefly blinded him once more.

* * *

 ** _Egg Carrier interior - evening_**

The first thing Big noticed as the light faded was that Froggy was once again back in his arms.

"Froggy!" he cried, hugging him tightly, but Froggy wasn't acting right. He looked lethargic, kicking his legs feebly and not responding to anything his friend said. Big stared down at him, worried.

"We have to find out what's wrong with you, good buddy," he said, glancing around, the vision already fading from his mind. He didn't like the looks of where he was standing - somehow he had ended up back outside the Hot Shelter and in the main interior of the battleship. "If something happens to us now, there's no point to my rescuing you… I don't know who would bother to save us both."

Nearby, a squarish car sat on what looked like some kind of transport rail. Big approached it curiously, and pressed a button on a nearby console.

"Emergency alert," a cool feminine voice said in response. "Monorail not in service."

Big furrowed his brow, and pressed another button labeled "Cancel."

"Emergency alert canceled. Monorail service resuming."

"Well, that was easy," Big said, pleased with himself, and climbed into the monorail car through the newly opened doors, wincing as they closed on his tail.

* * *

 ** _Egg Carrier rear deck - evening_**

Amy had never been so grateful to emerge into stormy weather, but after the humidity and heat of the Hot Shelter, the outer deck of the Egg Carrier was as welcome as a clear sunny sky as far as she was concerned.

"Okay, Birdie," she said, staring out at the vast deck stretching out before her. Up ahead, a huge section of the ship appeared to be blocked off by a pair of giant wings that she didn't remember seeing before. "Now we just need to find a way to get off this thing."

"And just where do you think _you're_ going, Amy Rose?"

Amy squeaked. _No, not now_ ….

The Egg Mobile descended from above, stopping directly in front of her. From the pilot's seat, the last person in the world she wanted to see sat grinning smugly at her.

"Eggman!"

He laughed, and she backed up a step, Birdie twittering madly from her shoulder. "You can't get away this easily, I'm afraid! Shouldn't you know that by now?"

She readied herself to run, or failing that, bash him with her hammer, whichever worked better, when a voice rang out from behind her.

"Think again, Egghead!"

She _knew_ that voice!

Amy spun to see none other than Sonic and Tails rushing toward her, and cried aloud in happiness. He really _had_ come back for her - he'd even brought Tails. She'd been so scared that she'd have to escape alone, find some way off this ship… and yet here they were.

She was so caught up in her moment of bliss that she didn't even realize Eggman's machine had extended its claw until Birdie was shrieking in terror. Amy turned at the sound and wailed, making a grab for him as he was yanked away from her. "No! _Not Birdie!"_

Eggman plucked Birdie from the claw's grasp and laughed. "If it's the bird you're worried about, girlie, have no fear." He grabbed onto the pendant hanging around Birdie's neck and yanked, snapping the thin string holding it in place. Birdie chirped in horror, then gasped as he was released, darting back to Amy's side. Amy grabbed him and held him close, where he shivered.

Then a glimmer caught her eye. She, Sonic, and Tails all gaped as they watched Eggman slide the pendant open - and out fell a tiny, aqua-colored gem, which quickly grew back to normal proportions once out of the pendant.

"A Chaos Emerald!" Tails said.

"I don't need any of you when I've got this!" Eggman said with satisfaction, tossing the pendant carelessly back. Amy caught it, Birdie chirping frantically.

Sonic huffed and crouched in a ready stance. "We're not letting you get away with that emerald, Eggman!"

"We'll see about that! GAMMA!"

A _whooshing_ noise made them all turn, and Amy gasped as she saw who exactly had just emerged onto the deck.

"What is your wish, Dr. Robotnik?"

"Dispose of these annoying pests," Eggman said, waving a careless hand at the three of them.

The robot who had freed Amy from her cell raised its cannon arm and nodded. "Aye aye, sir. Will comply."

 _No!_

"I've got better things to do than this." Amy heard the hum of the Egg Mobile's engine as it began to fly upwards and away from the scene, but she could only stare in horror as the robot she had to thank for her freedom aimed its cannon directly at her and her friends.

A gloved hand grabbed her arm and dragged her off to the side. "Amy, get out of the way!" Sonic said, crouching and keeping his eye on Gamma. "I'll handle this."

"Me too!" Tails said, adopting a similar stance.

"No, wait, guys!" Amy rushed back forward. "You don't understand - "

A blast knocked her back.

A missile had impacted the deck just inches away from her and Sonic, who had easily dodged. "Come on, you big clunker!" he yelled, darting around Gamma as Tails dove in to kick it from above.

"Stop! _No!"_

Amy's cries went unheard in the commotion. Birdie chirped rapidly from over her shoulder. She could have matched Tails blow for blow if she'd wanted to, but she didn't want to fight - she wanted to _stop_ the fighting.

She covered her mouth, feeling sick to her stomach as she watched Sonic dodge another missile and kick Gamma squarely in the head, then in the leg for good measure. He watched with satisfaction as it teetered, unbalanced - then it raised its cannon once more as Sonic began one last charge -

Amy couldn't take it anymore.

She ran forward, putting herself between the three of them, closed her eyes, and screamed at the top of her lungs, "STOP!"

Sonic skidded to a halt, Amy felt no blast of a missile hit her back, and silence reigned.

When she opened her eyes, Sonic was staring at her with a mixture of confusion and irritation, while Tails just looked perplexed. A glance over her shoulder told her that Gamma had lowered its cannon, and stood motionless, watching her.

"Stop," she repeated, her voice cracking. "No more fighting."

Sonic raised an eyebrow at her. "Amy," he said impatiently, "that's one of Eggman's clunkers. And in case you missed it, it's trying to kill us. Now step aside!"

 _"NO!"_ Even Sonic appeared taken aback by the force of her yell. "This robot is my friend. He helped me before - he's the reason I was able to escape!"

"What?" Tails said.

"It's true! He let me out of the cell Eggman was keeping me in." Amy spun and stared into Gamma's eyes. It stared back, its metal face unreadable. "And you, Mr. Robot… you remember me, right?"

It stayed silent for a long time, until Amy almost began to worry its memory of her had been wiped - but finally, it spoke. "Yes. The hedgehog girl in the prison cell, with the bird."

"And you let us go!" Amy turned back to Sonic, folding her arms in front of her. "See? He's not the evil sort."

Sonic sighed, then looked back at the robot standing behind her. "I uh… guess you must have your reasons," he finally said. "If it let you go, and you say it's harmless - even _if_ it did just try to roast me and Tails - "

Whatever else he was planning to say was cut off by an earsplitting explosion at the back of the ship, not far away. Amy screamed and grabbed her ears in pain.

"That was the engines!" Tails shouted, squinting behind her and also covering his ears.

 _"What?"_

Amy felt the deck of the Egg Carrier begin to rock dangerously under her feet, and stared at the others in alarm.

Tails took off into the air and rose quickly, staring out over the ship. "The Egg Carrier's losing altitude!" he called down over the sound of the storm around them. "I don't think we have much time!"

"We're _crashing?"_ Amy shrieked.

Sonic folded his arms as Tails alighted on the deck once more. "Tails," he said, "take Amy and get outta here."

"What?" Tails looked up at him in dismay. "But Sonic - what about you?"

"Eggman got away," he said, cracking his knuckles, "but not for long. I'm gonna find him and put him out of commission. Don't worry," he added with a smile at the sight of Tails and Amy's hesitation. "I'll be fine. You know I will!"

"Sonic, wait!" Amy cried, but he had already turned and was running for the bridge nearby. She sighed quietly. _Thanks for saving me as usual_ , she thought, a little dejected.

"Amy, come on," Tails said after a moment of silence, offering her a hand. He looked as though something was troubling him, more than just being left behind by Sonic, but whatever it was, he kept it to himself. "We gotta get out of here."

"Wait a minute," she said, brushing his hand away and turning back to Gamma, which had been standing quietly throughout the exchange.

"But Sonic said we have to leave _now!"_

"Don't boss me around, Tails. I'm older than you!"

"Sonic's older than _both of us!"_

 _"I just need a minute!"_ she yelled, and Tails huffed but went quiet.

"Mr. Robot," Amy began, looking back at Gamma, "it's dangerous here. If you stay, you'll get hurt! Why not leave Eggman and come with us?"

It only stared at her. "Why do you help me?" it asked quietly.

She reached up and took its hand. "Don't you remember? I said we'd be friends the next time we met, and I'm returning your favor." Birdie chirped, and she smiled, holding him out to Gamma as he perched on her finger. "Even Birdie wants you to be free. Eggman's not the kind of man you should work for. He's evil, and he'll use you…."

"Amy," Tails said, his voice full of frustration as another distant blast rocked the ship. "Come _on!"_

"Wait - " she tried to say, but Tails had already taken to the air, and grabbed her hands before she could protest further. As she was lifted up, and the deck fell away beneath her, she stared down at Gamma, and it stared back up at her. "Mr. Robot!" she yelled over the noise of the storm and the deteriorating ship. "Please take care of yourself!"

Then it became just a speck on the rapidly shrinking Egg Carrier, as Tails held her wrists tightly and began a slow descent to the ground far below.


	9. Mechanical Resonance

**_Egg Carrier bridge - evening_**

The bridge of the Egg Carrier looked exactly as Sonic expected it would, for being built by someone like Eggman. The colors of the room were bright and garish, buttons flashing and blinking on every console and wall, with the centerpiece being a gigantic, high-tech chair clearly meant to accommodate Eggman's considerable size. Sonic smirked. Just another testament to his legendary ego.

If he was going to get to Eggman on the opposite side of the ship, he would have to find a way to revert the ship's shape back to normal. Going back through the Sky Deck as it was would take up too much valuable time - time that he didn't have.

"Hmm…" he hummed, scanning the various consoles lining the walls. He almost regretted not bringing Tails along after all due to the kid's technical expertise, though he knew there had been no other way to ensure that he and Amy could escape safely. Sonic had the Tornado 2 to use as his own escape, once he'd taken out Eggman.

Sonic hopped up into Eggman seat and sat, hoping it would give him a clue, and to his surprise it jerked, rolling forward until he found himself positioned nearly within reach of the main console. He slid out, suddenly apprehensive of potential security measures designed to ensure that no one but Eggman could take control of the ship, and happened to glance back. Hidden where the chair had sat before it moved was a large, rather obvious-looking button.

"Heh," he said. No other reason Eggman would have hidden a button like that there.

Before the chair, once again empty, had a chance to roll back over the button, Sonic dashed across it, slamming one foot down hard onto it as he passed.

* * *

 ** _Sky Deck - evening_**

Knuckles sighed softly to himself, staring down at the three glimmering green shards cradled in his hands. _Finally_. These were the last pieces - he couldn't feel any others on the ship, and this was the last location the Master Emerald had shown him. He'd found them all.

He glanced around. _And now I just have to find a way off this blasted ship_.

He'd felt the explosions begin to rock the Egg Carrier a few minutes ago - he didn't know what had caused them, but he knew what it meant. This place was going down in flames soon enough. The thought of Big crossed his mind, and he hesitated. He had what he was looking for… but did the cat? He wasn't a fighter, just some random wild Mobian who'd gotten caught up in this mess. Knuckles had his duty, but could he in good conscience leave without at least trying to make sure Big was okay?

Something told him the answer was no.

He took a step toward the back of the ship, intending to begin searching, and the entire deck collapsed beneath him.

The sound of screeching metal nearly deafened him. The deck seemed to be trying to retract back into the interior of the ship, but something had gone wrong - it was falling apart, tearing itself to pieces. Knuckles stumbled, then fear jolted him, and he began to run blindly, trying to get off the Sky Deck before he was crushed in the debris.

The deck tilted sideways, twisted metal overtook his vision as machinery screamed, and so did he - and then something different. A soft voice was speaking, audible even over the cacophony.

 _"Let me help you as you have been helping me."_

Time seemed to slow, and the orange spark crossed his vision as he began the long fall to his death far below - and then, nothing but white.

* * *

 ** _Ancient altar - the distant past_**

Knuckles collapsed onto his knees as soon as he felt solid ground underneath his feet, heart pounding at what had just happened. He was safe, kneeling on grass, a familiar shine to the air around him. It took him a moment to recover from his shock before he looked up. Across the stone bridge, the Master Emerald's ancient altar still stood - but something was wrong. The sky was dark, and the altar was lit up an eerie, flickering red.

Whatever he might have expected from another vision, it wasn't this.

Knuckles got back to his feet and ran across the bridge, an uneasy feeling spreading through him. When he got closer he realized that the red light came from fire - tongues of flame licking along the underbrush near the stone steps. Knuckles could see broken weapons - spears and knives - strewn about on the ground, as though abandoned in a moment of panic by their wielders. A scattered collection of beads from a snapped necklace, a torn scrap of dyed cloth….

His eyes widened. Tikal was lying prone on the ground amid the discarded weapons just a few paces away, unmoving.

"Hey!" He rushed to her side and knelt, placing a hand on her shoulder. He couldn't see her face. "Hey, what happened here? Can you hear me?"

Relief flooded through him as she twitched, and then spoke - but her voice was low, strained. "I couldn't… I couldn't stop them." She raised her head weakly, turning to look at him, and her eyes met his, looking utterly defeated. "They came here, and my father…." Tikal gasped, her eyes glittering with tears. "I had no idea just how bad this would turn out…."

She tried to push herself up, and Knuckles helped, supporting her under his shoulder until she was standing shakily on her feet. He could see bruises and scrapes covering the visible parts of her body, her skirt torn at the hem, and she held her left arm as though it were badly injured.

Knuckles was about to question her further, ask what could possibly have happened here, when a distant, unearthly roar rang out from beyond the altar. Both echidnas turned at once, staring apprehensively at the place it had emanated from.

With the scene looking as bad as it did, Knuckles had almost expected the Master Emerald to be gone - but it was still there, shining bright as ever atop the altar. He could see the light from the rapidly expanding flames glimmering against its surface.

"Tikal, the emerald - " he began, but the flames grew brighter, spreading across his vision, and he braced himself to return to the present.

* * *

 ** _Egg Carrier forward deck - evening_**

The monorail had deposited Big somewhere near the front of the ship, and that was all he knew. He seemed to have ended up on a lower deck, with a nearby open-air elevator leading to the upper section.

"How are we gonna get out of here, Froggy?" he said, his nervousness growing by the second, especially as the ship began to tilt dangerously back and forth. Something had gone horribly wrong near the back - he didn't know what, but it was getting worse and worse the longer they stayed.

"Well well, you great lumbering beast! I see you're trying to escape with my frog!"

The voice came from somewhere behind him - and Big didn't like the sound of it at all.

"But no matter - you're right on time."

Before he could turn, something struck him in the back, and he toppled with a pained _"oomph."_ Froggy used this as an opportunity to wriggle free - Big made a vain grasp for him, unable to bear losing him yet again, but a metal claw got there first.

 _"No!"_

Froggy was lifted into the air in front of his eyes, and the thing that had struck Big flew ahead and up. It was a half-dome-shaped vehicle containing what seemed to be a human man with an impressive roundness to rival Big's own, wearing a bright red jacket and sporting a large mustache.

This must be Eggman. He'd stolen Froggy - first his robot had kidnapped him, and now he'd snatched him away from Big personally.

And Big had had just about _enough_.

He pushed himself to his feet and raced after Eggman. He'd flown to the upper deck, so Big climbed onto the elevator most obviously visible just ahead. It moved far too slowly, and Big couldn't help jabbing at it with his fishing pole. "Come on! _Hurry!"_

As soon as it reached the top, Big made to race forward, and halted at the sight of what awaited him. This wasn't an upper deck after all, he realized. Below him was what appeared to be a glass floor, and beneath that, a turquoise device that spun and glowed with energy. He had no idea what it was - a power generator? - but he decided it wasn't important. Close to the center of the circular area, Eggman sat in his vehicle, holding Froggy in triumph… and beyond _that_ ….

Some kind of creature floated just above the glass, made entirely out of a shimmering, glowing liquid and shaped like some kind of deformed fish with arms. It stared impassively at the scene with unnervingly blank green eyes, and in its head Big could see a brain floating free, seemingly unattached to anything else in its body.

Big froze in utter terror.

Eggman pressed down on Froggy's throat, and Froggy choked. Big cried out in alarm, but a second later Froggy coughed hard, and of all things, a yellow gem flew out - Big's old lucky charm, which he'd nearly forgotten about in the pandemonium of the last few days, save for his glimpse of it in the strange vision.

Eggman grabbed the yellow gem, pulled a second, cyan-colored gem from his pocket, and tossed both at the creature. A flash of light blinded Big for a brief moment, and when it cleared, he saw with horror that the creature had grown even larger, and had morphed into something that more resembled a giant spider. Its eyes had rearranged themselves into a vertical pattern, only making it look even more unnatural and alien, and it had grown a terrifying set of fangs around its gelatinous mouth.

"Excellent, Chaos! And now - for the frog!"

That snapped Big out of his trance.

He yelled Froggy's name, readying himself to run forward, but Eggman had already tossed the frog. Big watched, feeling like everything was moving in slow motion, as Froggy was absorbed into the creature's body. Slowly, Froggy's strange new tail melted away - and another bright light flashed outwards as the creature grew a similar tail from the back of its body, stretching high above its head.

It let out a cry that chilled Big's blood.

* * *

 ** _Egg Carrier rear deck - late evening_**

Upon his vision clearing, Knuckles was surprised - and relieved - to find himself standing upright. He was still on the ship, but on a completely different part of the upper deck, not falling into rapidly collapsing machinery as he had been a moment before. He let out a silent, slightly shaky breath. It would have been horrible, not to mention humiliating, to have died just on the cusp of completing his mission.

He readied himself to take off, to find a way off the ship, when a flash of light crossed his sight. Wincing, thoroughly sick of bright lights by now, he prepared to find himself in yet another vision, but upon opening his eyes he found himself to be still standing on the fortress' rear deck. He glanced up at the sky, listening for thunder, but it wasn't until the second flash of light that he realized they were coming from somewhere at the front of the ship.

 _Sonic?_ he wondered. Wherever there was commotion, Sonic was sure to be. He guessed there was only one way to find out.

He took off running, his path cleared by whatever had caused the Sky Deck to retract, aiming for the cause of the flashes.

* * *

 ** _Egg Carrier forward deck - late evening_**

A gust of wind buffeted Big from the side as he stared in terror at the creature holding Froggy in its body. He had frozen once again, trying to figure out what to do, when suddenly a new party entered the scene - a small blue hedgehog, who stopped in front of Big and stared out at Eggman and the creature. "Oh, no," he said in exasperation. "Not again!"

Eggman, still sitting in his vehicle on the other side of the glass platform, caught sight of them both and began to laugh theatrically. "You're too late, Sonic!" he called to the hedgehog. "Chaos has absorbed six of the emeralds, as well as his missing piece from that lumbering cat's pet frog!"

Big's trembling abruptly ceased. _Pet frog?_

"You won't get away with it, Eggman! We both know how these things tend to end."

Eggman only snorted. "And how do you plan to stop me? By making friends with the cat? You're no match for Chaos, even if he's not perfected yet."

Big felt his hands clench into fists, gripping his fishing pole hard.

Eggman leaned back in his seat, looking pleased. "Chaos! Destroy them!"

Big stared at the creature, which stared back directly at him - and then caught sight of Froggy, floating limply in the creature's liquid body.

And something inside him finally snapped.

"FROGGY!" he bellowed, whipping his fishing pole into position. He may not know how to fight this thing, not yet, but it was made of liquid, and that was all he needed. If there was anything Big knew how to do, it was fish.

Sonic turned to Big, staring up at him with a cocky grin. "So he's your friend, huh? No sweat, buddy, I'll help you get him b-"

"I MUST SAVE FROGGY!"

Big drew back, then cast his lure into the creature with all his might. The creature roared, fixing him with its gaze, but Big paid it no mind until it started to scuttle toward him.

"Whoa, pal," Sonic said. "I don't think he likes being… uh, fished in."

"I DON'T CARE!"

Froggy had been limp this entire time, but finally seemed to be waking back up. He wriggled around as the creature crept ever closer, and Big began to back up slowly, matching the creature's pace as Sonic took off running to the other side of the platform.

 _Come on, little buddy!_

Froggy swam closer… closer… and his mouth closed around the lure.

Big forgot everything he knew about careful reeling and simply yanked. Froggy came flying out of the creature's body with a wet _plop_ , sailing straight into Big's outstretched, waiting hands.

For a moment, the outside world disappeared. Froggy stared up at Big, all signs of his previous listlessness gone. He looked like his old self again. "Ribbit," he said brightly.

Big hugged him, being careful even in his joy not to squash him. _"Froggy!_ You're okay!"

"Ribbit!"

Sonic returned in a gust of wind, bringing Big back to the present, and he looked up to see that whatever he had done seemed to have briefly confused the creature, turning it in a circle. "Good, fishing party's over, friends reunited?" he said. "Then get outta here! I'll take care of the rest."

"Really?" Big looked back at the creature, which had steadied itself and was glaring once more. For a second, he felt obligated to continue helping - this was the thing that had caused him and Froggy so much grief over the past few days, and it had nearly taken Froggy from him forever.

Then again, Froggy was free now, and Big wasn't quite sure he was ready for a fight of this magnitude.

"Okay," he said. "Then thanks - for helping."

"No problem! Now _run!"_

Big heeded his advice and took off as fast as his legs would carry him, holding Froggy tightly and making a beeline for the front of the ship, hoping there was something - anything - there that could get him back to safety.

* * *

 ** _Egg Carrier forward deck - late evening_**

Knuckles arrived at the source of the flashes, which turned out to be none other than a transformed Chaos, in time to see a large purple figure hightailing it from the scene.

 _Well, at least I know Big made it through alive._

He leapt onto the platform, which seemed to be covering a power generator that was slowly burning itself up from the inside, judging from the smoke clouding the glass over it. Chaos roared in the center, having taken a new, significantly creepier form (Knuckles could see two more Chaos Emeralds nestled inside it, and growled in anger), Eggman was laughing nearby, and Sonic was running laps around the thing, no doubt trying to figure out how to hurt it.

"Sonic!" Knuckles called, running forward to join the fight, and Sonic skidded to a halt next to him.

"Hey, Knuckles," he said. "Glad you finally decided to join the party! Thought you got lost or something."

"Not lost." Knuckles raised his fists and stared Chaos down. "How do we take this thing out?"

"Teamwork?"

"Be serious!"

Sonic huffed and dodged as Chaos whipped its tail at them. "I don't know!" he said. "Every time I try to get close enough to hit the brain, that tail comes around. I can't get past it!"

"Then we need to find a way to immobilize it!"

They split up, running around opposite sides of the creature. Its attention fixed on Knuckles this time, and seeing Sonic watching from the opposite side of the platform, he encouraged it, yelling "Come on! You think you're tough?"

In response, Chaos opened its mouth.

Knuckles expected a roar, but instead an incredibly strong wind caught him, and he realized with a jolt that it was trying to suck him into its body. He turned and tried to run, his shoes scuffing uselessly against the smooth glass as he was pulled closer.

"Sonic!" he yelled as he lost his balance, then he was sucked inside.

Everything was abnormally quiet in here. The liquid that comprised Chaos' body was unexpectedly warm, and felt uncomfortably tingly against his skin. Knuckles kept his eyes tight shut, not wanting to know what the liquid would do to them if he opened them, and felt forward with his hands. If he was stuck in here, he might as well do some good - and perhaps he could even hit the brain from the inside -

\- but a second later, a jolt rippled through Chaos' body, and Knuckles found himself being spit back out onto the glass platform.

He gasped, able to breathe again, and rolled blindly to his feet, wondering what had caused it to release him. Sonic waved at him from behind the creature. "You're welcome!"

 _"Sonic!"_ Knuckles yelled, dodging a swipe from Chaos' tail. "I had it under control!"

"Sure you did!"

Chaos swung its tail, and Knuckles grabbed hold this time, bracing himself against the ground and pulling. "Try now!"

"Got it!"

Chaos pulled hard against Knuckles' grip, but he held on doggedly, straining to keep it from moving. Sonic leapt into the air and curled up, spinning rapidly and aiming straight for Chaos' brain - and bounced off the side.

Chaos wrenched its tail free from Knuckles, who had been distracted by his friend's failure, and lifted it straight into the air as Sonic picked himself back up the ground, grumbling. Its body began to shift into another shape once again, and Sonic and Knuckles both tensed, ready, waiting to see what it was planning this time.

The form it took could only be described by Knuckles as some sort of bottle shape, its tail extending out from the top. For a moment, it hung in place, doing nothing. Then Knuckles watched apprehensively as one by one, glowing purple spots appeared on its sides, covering it entirely.

 _Oh, what fresh hell is this…?_

One of the spots directly in front of Knuckles glowed a little brighter, and his eyes widened.

He had a split second to dive to the side, narrowly avoiding being hit as an arm shot out at him from the glowing spot. Knuckles scrambled as another darted out, then another, and he could hear Sonic's yelps as he danced around the arms as well.

Knuckles stopped, facing Chaos, and as another purple-tipped arm lanced toward him he sidestepped and punched it out of the way. Chaos screeched furiously, but tried again, with the same results. Knuckles began to laugh, emboldened by this strategy.

"Take that, you bag of jelly!"

He winced. _I'm beginning to sound like Sonic_.

One of his punches missed by an inch, and Chaos took advantage of his being briefly unbalanced to slam a new arm directly into his side. He coughed, the wind knocked out of him and abruptly all the arms retracted as Knuckles fell to his knees, gasping.

"Knuckles!" Sonic yelled, trying to run to him, but Chaos' tail was keeping him busy on the other side of the platform.

Knuckles could hear Eggman laughing behind him, and gritted his teeth, standing despite the pain. "Shut _up!"_ he roared, whirling and leaping forward to deliver a punch to the front of the Egg Carrier that left a sizeable dent and sent it skittering backward a good ten feet.

"Aaargh! Stupid echidna!"

The bottom of the floating vehicle scraped along the glass, causing a small section to crack and fall to pieces. Instantly the smoke from the malfunctioning generator began to escape, but from here it didn't look like smoke anymore. It was more like a wispy steam, and it wasn't hot, as Knuckles had expected… it was cold.

A crazy idea popped into his head.

"Are you planning on helping anytime soon, Knux?" Sonic yelled, rolling to avoid yet another swipe of Chaos' tail.

Knuckles ran forward, dodging as well. "Sonic! Break the glass under his feet, it'll freeze him!"

"What? Are you serious?" Sonic stared up at the creature, which howled in fury.

"No harm in trying!"

As Knuckles did his best to keep Chaos' attention elsewhere, Sonic leapt up to avoid another tail swing like playing the world's deadliest game of jump rope, then brought his weight down hard on his heels, cracking the glass. He turned the landing into a roll that brought him underneath Chaos' body, and steam began to spout from the crack, billowing around Chaos. It let out an earsplitting screech, writhing briefly, but Knuckles was right - the liquid of its body began to harden, then freeze completely.

Taking power from a running start, Knuckles jumped up and punched it at the same time that Sonic leapt at it, spinning like a buzzsaw.

It shattered like ice.

Knuckles and Sonic landed next to each other, staring down at the results of their handiwork.

"Noooo!" Eggman wailed behind him as the pieces of Chaos began to melt back into indistinct puddles on the glass. "I can't believe this!"

"I can!" Sonic said, dusting off his hands satisfactorily. He flashed Knuckles a grin only for both of them to freeze and turn at the sound of engines firing. Eggman's vehicle was already beginning to speed toward the edge of the ship, which was rocking in earnest now as the engines failed totally.

"Until we meet again, Sonic!" Eggman called back, his voice betraying a hint of nervousness.

"Hey, not so fast!" Sonic nearly bowled Knuckles over as he raced after the doctor. "Get back here! I was just getting warmed up!"

Knuckles glanced back at the pieces of Chaos before following - and froze. "Uh, Sonic?"

But Sonic had already taken a running leap off the side of the Egg Carrier onto Eggman's vehicle, and they disappeared below the edge of the ship, both shouting madly all the way.

 _"Sonic!"_

The pieces of Chaos had melted completely and were re-fusing, already forming its original shape again, the six emeralds gleaming at its center.

For all his strength, Knuckles knew he couldn't defeat this thing alone, not fairly. He looked around frantically for anything that might give him an edge.

 _The Chaos Emeralds…._

If he were just able to take those away from the beast, it would be weak - even weaker than when he'd first fought it. He needed to shatter it again to get at them, but doubted it would fall for the same trick twice. He scanned the platform as Chaos fully reformed and roared at the stormy sky. Most of the generator's covering was easily breakable glass - _nice engineering choice, Eggman_ \- but the center, which Chaos was currently standing on, was solid metal.

It was a long shot, but he had no other choice.

Knuckles began the familiar dance again, dodging swipes from Chaos' long tail. It seemed sluggish, as though the first blow had already weakened it, but it was still powerful, still dangerous. Knuckles moved to the far side of the platform, trying to bait it into moving closer.

That was the wrong choice - its mouth opened.

But this time, Knuckles was prepared. He tuned and began to run, fighting the vortex from the thing's mouth trying to draw him in. It pulled him slowly backwards, but he ran harder than he ever had in his life, his shoes scuffing the glass and leaving scratches and marks, and Chaos ran out of steam just before he reached its jaws.

He darted out of the way as soon as he was free, avoiding a snap of its teeth at his tail, and this time, made sure to stay close enough that it attacked with its tail, but just far away enough that it began to inch steadily toward him. Knuckles threw a few punches, putting up a token resistance - and finally, as he teetered at the edge of the platform, Chaos stepped exactly where he needed it to be.

Knuckles took a deep breath, then ran a wide arc around it, rolling under another tail strike and skidding to a stop directly on the central metal plate. He raised one fist as Chaos lumbered around to face him.

"You're finished!"

And he slammed his fist into the metal circle with every bit of strength he possessed.

The shockwave from his blow traveled through the entire platform, reverberating through the already weakened glass, and all of it surrounding him shattered.

Chaos screamed as it fell into the generator, only to be blasted back up by the sheer force of the cold steam, freezing instantly midair. Knuckles leapt as high as he could over most of the steam, frost forming on his shoes, and punched the rigid Chaos, shattering it once again and sending the emeralds encased inside it flying off the side of the now-wrecked generator platform.

He arced downward, and both he and the emeralds landed, tumbling, on the other side of the higher deck. He tucked in his elbows and relaxed as best he could until he finally came to a stop, breathing heavily. A part of him couldn't believe he was still alive after a stunt like that, but he'd hardly had a choice.

Knuckles pushed himself up and spotted the emeralds, lying scattered several feet away. He scrambled over to collect them before Chaos could make another comeback - assuming its physical form had even survived what he had just done to it. The emeralds gleamed as they sat in his palms - six emeralds, brought together.

Knuckles stood, tucking them away with the Master Emerald shards for safekeeping, and then found himself brought up short by a bizarre sight.

Of all people he might have encountered, Big the Cat was still on board the deteriorating Egg Carrier, standing and staring at a plane with X-shaped wings that was sitting tilted over on the deck, at the end of a long skid mark. Knuckles could see Sonic's name and Tails' trademark symbol painted on the sides. At least he knew how they had ended up on board, but it looked like they might be losing their plane after everything that had happened.

"Big!" Knuckles called, then stumbled as an explosion went off, worryingly nearby. This thing wouldn't last much longer.

Big turned at the sound of his voice, and his face broke out in a huge smile. "Mister… uh, echidna!"

Knuckles stared at him in a split second of confusion before remembering he'd never actually told Big his own name. "I see you found your frog after all," Knuckles said as he walked up, spying the creature nestled in Big's arms.

"Yep! I found him in a tank labeled 'Engine Coolant.' He was swimming in the water there, so I drained it!"

Knuckles stared in utter disbelief. "And I assume that that and _this_ \- " he jerked a thumb toward the back of the ship " - _might_ be directly related?"

Big wasn't listening, having gone back to staring down at the plane. "I thought I could use this to get off the ship, but I don't know the first thing about it…."

The fortress rocked again dangerously, and Knuckles felt his stomach disappear as it began to drop in earnest. He looked back to see the engines going up in a terrifyingly final fireball at the very back of the ship. The final stabilizers must have failed - they were plummeting at speed.

"Big, we may not have much of a choice! I doubt Eggman installed any kind of escape pods or - "

"What does this button do?"

Knuckles turned back in horror to see that Big had somehow managed to squish himself into the Tails-sized pilot's seat, and was pressing something on the front console.

"No, wait!"

The engines fired, and the plane began to screech painfully along the deck, straight toward Knuckles.

He leapt out of the way, kicking the nose upwards as he did so, then reached out and grabbed the tail just as the plane shot up into the air.

The sound of a huge cat and a terrified echidna screaming as their borrowed plane spiraled into the darkness of the storm echoed over the Egg Carrier as it went up in flames, plunging from the sky toward the ocean far below.


	10. Militant Missionary

**_Station Square - night_**

By the time Station Square came into view below, Amy's arms had gone numb again, reminding her of her adventure with the balloon the night before. But time time, she dangled from her friend instead instead - a friend who looked like he might pass out any second. Birdie chirped in soft concern.

As soon as Amy's feet touched the pavement in front of the train station and she let go of Tails' hands, Tails collapsed.

 _"Tails!"_

"I'm fine," he groaned, facedown on the pavement. "Just… need a moment… flew so far…."

Despite the few curious looks thrown their way, Amy sat down next to him. "Thanks for getting me out of there," she said after a long moment of silence. "And… sorry I took so long to come with."

Tails pushed himself up slowly to a sitting position. "S'okay," he mumbled. "You made friends with a robot, or something."

"I told you, he helped me!" She started to cross her arms in indignation, sighed, and turned the gesture into hugging her knees instead. "I hope he made it out of there okay…."

"He's a robot. Even if he didn't, someone could rebuild him."

Somehow, that made Amy feel a little better. She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. "Could that someone be you?"

"If you found the parts… I guess."

Birdie twittered from her shoulder.

"Well, I'm not gonna give up hope that he's okay just yet." She stood, then offered Tails a hand. He took it, standing stiffly. "How are you feeling now?"

"Like I need to sleep for about a week straight."

Amy sighed. Now that they were out of danger, exhaustion had begun to creep back for her as well. "Me too." She yawned, then shook her head. "But we can't just give up now! Sonic is still out there somewhere. We need to find him before things get out of hand."

Tails looked up at the night sky, where the Egg Carrier had been flying before they'd escaped. "He said he was going after Eggman. I doubt Eggman plans to just waltz into Station Square with a missile strapped to his back, and if Sonic didn't make it off the ship for a while after we did… he'll probably have ended up at the Mystic Ruins. There's no way we're getting there without more flying, and by the time we got there by walking, we'll - "

Amy cocked an eyebrow. "What do you mean, no way to get there? We can just take the train, can't we?"

Tails shook his head. "I tried to get here from the ruins last night to find Sonic. The station master there told me they were on strike for better pay, or something."

Amy frowned. "But just this morning I ended up on a train to the Mystic Ruins." She winced inwardly, the memory of being trapped in Zero's claws coming back to her. "uh, so to speak."

"What? There's no way!"

"Well, we can check, can't we?" Amy turned and led the way into the nearby train station, Tails trailing her tiredly.

She marched up to the first employee she saw and tapped him on the waist, the highest part of him she could reach. "Excuse me?" she said.

The man looked down and smiled brightly, which she hadn't expected. "Well hello there, young lady!" he said. "Can you believe the good news? Our strike last night only lasted a few hours before management caved!"

"You were on _strike?"_ Amy said in her sweetest little girl voice, shooting an innocent glance at Tails, who was looking thunderstruck.

"Yes indeed!" The man beamed. "They were underpaying us and overworking us, but no more! They not only promised us all higher wages, but have plans to hire more staff to help with the workload! This is the best news I've had all year!"

"Oh, _congratulations!"_

Tails stomped his foot and flung his hands into the air. "Unbelievable!" he muttered, already heading for the door.

Amy stared after him a moment before turning back to the employee. "Well, sorry mister, but I have to go look after my friend." She winked. "He's a little upset."

"Sure thing! Take care!"

Outside the doors, Amy found Tails quietly fuming. "Hey, don't take it so hard," she said. "You didn't know."

Birdie chimed in with a reassuring chirp.

"Why were you stuck in the Mystic Ruins without him, anyway?" Amy said. "When I met up with Sonic yesterday he seemed frantic to find you, but didn't say why. He seemed to think you were in the city."

Tails rubbed at his eyes. "We crashed the Tornado."

Amy's eyes flew wide. "You _what?_ You mean right before I saw him, Sonic was in a _plane crash?"_

"Yeah, and _I_ was too, for the record. Make that two in two days, actually, my test plane crashed the day before."

"Geez, he didn't tell me _any_ of that," Amy said, feeling bad for having given him a hard time at all. _Poor kid._ "No wonder you're so tired."

"Yeah, and now I left the Tornado 2 back on the Egg Carrier hoping Sonic could use it to escape, only we don't even know if he got off in time at all, and - " Tails clapped his fist into his palm. "You were right earlier. I can't give up now. Sonic might be in trouble without me - I have to get to the Mystic Ruins and make sure he's okay."

Tails started to head back toward the entrance to the train station, but Amy stepped in front of it, blocking his path.

"Amy, what are you doing?"

"Uh-uh," she said, shaking her head firmly. "You've had a long day - a long _three_ days, from the sound of it. I think you should get some rest. _I'll_ be the one to head for the Mystic Ruins to look for him."

"No!" Tails tried to barge past her, but she grabbed his wrists and held him back, pleased to find that she was stronger than him by a long shot. All that practicing with her hammer was paying off. "Amy, let me go! He's my best friend!"

"He may be _your_ best friend," she said, shoving him back and fishing in the pocket of her dress, "but he's _my_ future boyfriend." Tails blew a stray tuft of fur out of his eyes, looking thoroughly exasperated. Ignoring his attitude, Amy found what she was looking for and pulled it out, tossing it to him. "This is the key to my apartment," she said. "You know where it is. You go there, and get some sleep. Don't argue - you need it."

Tails stared down at the keychain in his hand. "Amy…."

"I said don't argue! I'm doing you a favor, as a friend."

He hesitated a moment longer, then sighed, and smiled up at her. "Okay. Thanks, Amy."

"No problem." She winked at him, then watched him as he trudged off down the street, dragging his feet in his exhaustion.

Once he had disappeared from view, she sighed. She didn't regret sending him off, but she couldn't deny that she felt just as exhausted. _Being kidnapped by Eggman will do that to a girl, I suppose_. "And how are you feeling, Birdie?" she said after a moment, lifting a hand to eye level so Birdie could alight on her finger. He chirped sadly.

"You know, you surprised me." Amy sat on the steps leading back up to the train station and stared out at the horizon, which was dark, hovering over the familiar waters. "I didn't expect you to have a Chaos Emerald with you. I guess that's why Eggman was after you, huh?"

Birdie chirped again, then abruptly hopped off her finger and darted into her pocket.

"Hey - what are you doing? Is something wrong?"

Muffled twittering.

"Are you… looking for snacks in there?"

Birdie emerged, holding his pendant in his beak. She'd almost forgotten she still had it with her. He dropped it in her hand, twittering madly.

Frowning, she popped it open and gasped.

A tiny picture lay nestled inside. Sitting at the center was Birdie, and on either side of him stood two nearly identical birds, one with light yellow feathers and the other, dark pink.

"Hey… is this your family, Birdie?"

"Chirp!"

"You escaped Eggman's clutches before…." Amy stared up at the sky above, remembering his fall from the Egg Carrier onto her head. "Does he still have them captive?"

Birdie chirped again, and the despondent look in his eyes nearly made her heart break.

"Hey - don't look so glum! I said I was your friend and that I would help you. And that doesn't stop at just rescuing you from Eggman." She stood, clicking the pendant closed and tying the broken ends of the string that had snapped into a tiny knot. Birdie hovered in front of her hopefully. "We're already headed to the Mystic Ruins to find Sonic - and where we find _Sonic_ , we'll find Eggman, and I bet if we find _Eggman_ , we'll find your family!"

She slipped the repaired pendant carefully over Birdie's head, and he looped in the air, twittering joyfully. Amy couldn't help but laugh.

"Gamma said that Eggman's base was in the ruins," she said, slipping back through the station doors. "So we know we're going the right way. And we can sleep on the train there, because I'm beat."

They walked in past the ecstatic station employee, who was currently gushing about his wage increase to another bemused passenger-to-be, and despite what she'd said about catching some sleep, Amy could feel a new energy surging through her. She had a mission now, and she was determined to see it through to the end.

* * *

 ** _Above the Mystic Ruins jungle - night_**

"Get _off_ , you pesky little hedgehog!"

"Not a chance, Egghead!"

Sonic clung doggedly to the side of the Egg Mobile as Eggman shook it back and forth rapidly, trying to dislodge him. They were flying over some unidentified dark landmass, descending swiftly as the sound of booms and explosions echoed above them.

"You ruined my fortress!" Eggman yelled, grabbing a wrench from the depths of his vehicle and raising it in a fury. Sonic let go with one hand a split second before it clanged down against the spot where his fingers had been.

"It was a lousy fortress anyway!"

"You take that back!"

 _Clang!_

Sonic took a deep breath, then swung himself up enough to hook his foot over the edge of the vehicle. Eggman's head spun in alarm as Sonic pulled himself up, then aimed a punch squarely at the middle of his face.

"GAH!" Sonic watched with satisfaction as the doctor grabbed his nose and howled. "You little rat!"

"No worries doc, I'll take it from here!" Sonic shoved Eggman to the side, making a grab for the controls, but the doctor shoved back viciously, and Sonic lost his balance, tumbling over the side of the vehicle and barely managing to grab onto the side once more. He dangled from one hand, and glanced downward. The ground certainly looked closer from here.

Above him, Eggman glared at him over the front of the vehicle, looking positively livid. "I've had just about enough of you! Off my Egg Mobile, now!"

"Heh," Sonic grunted, making a grab for the side with his free hand. "I don't think s-OW!"

This time, Eggman didn't miss, bringing the wrench straight down on Sonic's fingers. He yelped in pain, his grip slipped, and he plunged down towards the ground below, yelling all the way.

He'd had just about _enough_ of falling from airborne vehicles.

It only took a few seconds of falling before his back was buffeted painfully by branches and leaves, and then he hit the ground. Or rather, splatted. Into mud.

For a long, long time, all he could do was lay faceup where he had landed, staring up at the leaves of the trees above. It looked like he had landed somewhere in the jungle near the Mystic Ruins. He could hear softly running water nearby, and the faint whisper of the wind through the leaves - perhaps a rumble of far-off thunder from the distant storm - but other than that, there was almost total silence.

Finally, Sonic pushed himself to a sitting position, groaning. Every part of his body ached. "I hate Eggman," he grumbled to himself. Now he was stuck in this uncharted jungle, uncharted by human standards at least, completely on his own. He was sure he could find a way out eventually if he simply ran long enough - he didn't have to worry about getting lost, at least - but he didn't want out, he wanted to find Eggman. And currently, he had no way of doing so.

Slowly, he stood, then stiffly followed the sound of water until he reached a small stream. It was shallow enough that it didn't set off his anxiety, so he waded in, hissing at the cold, but refusing to go any further until he wasn't covered in mud.

He splashed water on himself tiredly, realizing he hadn't slept in nearly two days straight. Yesterday, it had been a plane crash. Today, it was Eggman making another escape, even with Sonic straight on top of him. This had been a fun adventure at first, but by now, Sonic was _done_. When he found Eggman again….

Sonic paused. Some kind of orange light was reflecting on the water's surface. He looked up, expecting a torch from a human explorer, to see instead what looked like a firefly dancing around just a few paces away. Only, it didn't look quite natural. Sonic stood and took a step toward it, stretching out his hand, but it darted away immediately, further into the trees.

He began to follow it, but it always stayed just a few steps ahead, even when he picked up his pace. _Is it… trying to show me something?_ he wondered.

He had no other leads, and something told him the light wasn't malicious - some deeper feeling that he couldn't quite explain. So he continued to follow it deeper into the jungle, hoping that wherever it led him, it would be worth it.

* * *

 ** _Mystic Ruins jungle - night_**

Big sat quietly on his bed for the first time in nearly four days.

"Well, Froggy," he said, staring a few paces away at the faintly smoking wreck of the plane he'd borrowed, "it's good to be home, huh?"

He had been howling in terror from the moment he activated the engines and the thing had gone spiraling out of the sky, his new echidna friend hanging onto the tail and screaming as well. In hindsight, it probably wasn't the smartest thing he'd ever done - but, he countered himself, if he _hadn't_ taken the plane, he and the echidna would have gone down with the fortress.

When they had finally crash landed in the mud and Big had shake off the shock of the flight, he had been delighted to find that they had somehow ended up directly next to his jungle dwelling. But the echidna had not been nearly as pleased, yelling about how he could have gotten them both killed and something about a grounded island and a very important emerald. Big hadn't understood all of it, but his ears had drooped all the same until the echidna wound down and began to look ashamed of himself.

"Look, I'm sorry… Big," he said. "I guess you did get us both out of there alive."

"Aw," Big said quietly. "It was nothing."

They sat in silence for a few moments, staring back at the wreckage.

"Tails isn't going to like that," the echidna said.

"You can stay here for the night, if you want, pal."

"Actually…." The echidna glanced around at the surrounding trees. "Do you know the way out of this jungle? I can navigate wilderness normally, but not if I don't know at least the barest direction I should be heading in. And I need to get back home. It's… very important."

Big nodded. He knew what it felt like to want to go home.

So he stood, and put one hand on the echidna's shoulder. He had tensed at that, but Big simply pointed towards where he knew the Mystic Ruins train station was located. The echidna glanced up at him, nodded, and began to walk.

"Good luck, echidna friend!" Big had called after him, wondering if he'd ever see him again. He may have had a temper, but Big could see that he also had a good heart.

The echidna stopped and turned back, and Big saw him smile for the first time since they'd met. "Just call me Knuckles."

Then he'd disappeared into the trees, leaving Big to sit on his bed and contemplate all that he'd been through in the past few days.

"Froggy," he said after some time. "I know we don't leave home much… but I might not mind going on another adventure someday. As long as you're with me, good buddy."

Froggy croaked happily from his lap.

* * *

 ** _Mystic Ruins - night_**

 _Beta, suspended in an automated reconstruction machine, dismantled beyond recognition._

Its brother, tortured and un-created because it had fought against Gamma in a test of strength - and lost.

 _The rest of the E-100 series, suspended in columns of light, being stretched into oblivion._

All banished, possibly repurposed, because Gamma had found the correct frog and they had not.

 _The hedgehog girl's face, staring up at it pleadingly as the ship deteriorated around them._

It had saved her, and in return, she saved it.

 _The doctor's face, swimming into focus for the first time._

Its first memory. The memory of its master.

 _"Eggman's not the kind of man you should work for," she said to it, large green eyes staring into its own as she grasped its hand. "He's evil, and he'll use you…."_

The images repeated over and over, for a time that could have been five minutes or fifty years, filling its processors until Gamma didn't even know if it truly existed, or doomed to relive these snapshots in time for eternity. But finally, very slowly, the images cleared, and Gamma took in its immediate surroundings. It stood upright on a patch of coarse grass, the sky dark above it. It could see a cliff face nearby, and hear the sound of ocean waves coming from somewhere below.

 _The Mystic Ruins._

The last thing recorded in Gamma's memory banks was the deck of the Egg Carrier. After the fox had flown the hedgehog girl away, it had remained standing still where they had left it. The conflicts forming in its programming had finally overwhelmed its processors. Gamma could not find any trace in its logs of how it had escaped the crash intact.

 _She rose high into the sky, carried upwards by the fox with two tails. "Mr. Robot!" she yelled down at it desperately, trying to make herself heard over the sounds of howling wind and exploding engines. "Please take care of yourself!"_

Perhaps that was how. She had told it to.

Gamma studied the image before sending it away, and bringing an earlier one back - the one that troubled it the most. The image of the doctor, its master, staring at it as it awoke. The brilliant Dr. Robotnik.

 _Serving the doctor… is no longer a priority._

"Dr. Robotnik: enemy. Master registration: deleted."

And just like that, Gamma was free.

But the rest of the E-100 series….

 _It stared at her, unable to process her actions. "Why do you help me?" it asked her, needing an answer, needing to understand her illogical course of action._

 _She took its hand in hers, staring into its eyes with a small smile. "Don't you remember? I said we'd be friends the next time we met, and I'm returning your favor."_

"E-100 series: friends."

Gamma has to save them.

It knew that the doctor would have most likely reprogrammed and refitted them as he had Beta. Their programming would have been reinforced, ensuring their loyalty to him. They would not abandon the doctor as easily as Gamma had. Which likely left it with only one option - they had to be destroyed, to free them from their yoke.

The doctor had thought Gamma his best, most loyal creation. He would not have expected its loyalty code to be so fragile, so easily altered. He wouldn't have expected Gamma to gain sentience, independence. A conscience. _His folly_.

Gamma activated its jet boosters, rising high into the air until it could see the entirety of the Mystic Ruins laid out below it, and activated a locator signal. The other E-100 series robots would not know that Gamma had defected, registered its old master as its newest enemy. They would respond, if they were close enough.

A minute passed, then two, and a faint ping sounded. Shortly after, another one appeared. Delta and Epsilon - both in the ruins, patrolling. Gamma lowered itself to the ground, and turned toward the location of the nearest one: Delta.

 _I am coming, friends. I will save you_.

* * *

 ** _Station Square - night_**

The waves of the nearby water lapped against the quay, a soft, soothing sound to accompany Tails as he made his way along the oceanside street to Amy's apartment. Even with exhaustion dragging at his feet, worry still tugged at him. Some part of him still wasn't comfortable just sleeping while Amy did all the work. She was older, but Tails had known Sonic longer, and had helped him confront Eggman before. But… he didn't know how helpful he might be in this state. Everything that had happened on board the Egg Carrier had left him thoroughly fatigued.

He paused, looking out at the dark ocean, tossing the keychain idly in his hand. Maybe he should go back after all - he could catch a bit of sleep on the train, and then….

Tails squinted. There was a small shape moving around out above the water. He couldn't quite make it out from here. He stepped closer to the quay, watching as the shape grew rapidly, approaching - and a jolt of pure terror ran through him as he realized exactly what it was.

 _No…!_

"Well, well," Eggman said, his voice full of malice as he stared down at Tails from his Egg Mobile. "If it isn't the little fox boy who helped my worst enemy _destroy my fortress."_

This couldn't be true - Eggman was supposed to be in the Mystic Ruins, not _here_ -

"Not to mention killing Chaos! All my plans hinged on him, but _no_ \- Sonic had to go and ruin that too."

"What did you do to him?" Tails said, fighting to keep his voice steady and failing utterly.

Eggman bared his teeth; it was less of a grin than an outright threat. "I dumped him in the middle of the jungle, you little nuisance. He's stranded there, if he even survived the fall at all."

Every one of Tails' extremities had gone numb with horror.

He watched, paralyzed, as the doctor produced a small remote and pressed a small red button. "Luckily for me - and unfortunately for you - I made sure to construct a contingency in case something like this happened."

Far along the peninsula that extended into the ocean from the city, a dark shape was emerging. It grew larger… larger… sliding out of the ground, until it was fully revealed. Even iin the dark, Tails recognized its shape.

 _If that missile is launched_ ….

"I will still destroy Station Square and build my empire on its ruins, and this time, there is no blue menace here to stop me!"

And he mashed the fire button.

Cries of alarm rang out along the quay as people began to realize what was happening. Tails tried to convince himself to run, to do anything, but he was frozen. His eyes followed the missile as it blasted off, flying up and overhead, trailing fire until it had flown out of sight behind him, on a downward arc into the buildings in the heart of the city. Then he squeezed his eyes shut, knowing it was over, waiting for the wall of destruction to hit him.

There was a small boom, then… nothing.

Nothing happened.

"A _dud?"_ Eggman snarled, and Tails' eyes flew open.

"I'll have to deal with this myself." Eggman aimed a threatening finger down at Tails, who was still standing in place, heart racing. "And _you!_ You better not interfere! I'd suggest getting out of the city while you still can."

The Egg Mobile shot off in the direction of the missile, and abruptly all the feeling came back to Tails' limbs. Without thinking, he began to scramble after Eggman, completely at a loss for what to do.

If Eggman reached the missile, it was over. He would set it to detonate manually, and the city would be obliterated - with everyone still inside. Tails _had_ to reach it before Eggman. He didn't know what he could do, but there had to be something.

"Sonic," he gasped as he ran. Images flashed through his mind at lightning speed, of Sonic racing through the streets of Station Square, easily overtaking the Egg Mobile and saving the city while hardly breaking a sweat. But Sonic wasn't here - Sonic was stranded in the middle of nowhere, and Amy was gone, likely already far outside the city. There was no one left to defend the city - no one but Tails….

 _Independence_. The word echoed through his mind and time seemed to slow, even as he continued to run. When things got rough, he always relied on Sonic to help him, protect him - but he wasn't here for this one. Tails couldn't depend on him forever.

He would have to take care of this one on his own.

When he came back to himself, Tails realized he was flying.

The city glittered, spread out below him - he could see the missile from here, sticking sideways out of the ground at least a mile away. And - there! The Egg Mobile was flying just ahead, weaving through the tall buildings as people darted around the streets in a panic.

It was faster than him, but Tails had raced Sonic before - and won. He just needed to use the terrain to his advantage.

Tails landed on a skyscraper briefly and took a running start, then leapt off the edge, tails whirling again. The action lent him speed - he was moving faster now, and he knew, he _knew_ he could make it.

He had to.

* * *

 ** _Mystic Ruins jungle - night_**

Sonic was almost ready to give up on following the light, certain he must have been wrong and all it was trying to do was lead him astray, when finally the trees began to thin up ahead and he stepped out into a clearing.

In the center of the clearing, an ancient, ruined temple stood, silhouetted against the sky. He could only see a faint outline from here, dark as it was, but the light led him further on, past other blocks of broken stone scattered here and there, until he stood close enough to see worn stone steps carved into the side of the temple.

"Is this where you were leading me?" Sonic asked the light. It bobbed and began to lead the way up the steps. He had no choice but to follow it, as it was the only clear source of light around - without it, he would be lost.

At the top of the steps, Sonic saw that a dark doorway, wooden door long since rotted away, led into the interior. The light was bobbing a few feet down the passageway, casting a faint orange glow on the smooth stone walls, waiting for him.

"You want me to go in there?"

It bobbed again.

Sonic doubted that his mustachioed quarry was hiding out in this temple… but this was just too bizarre to ignore. And he had a funny feeling that this had more to do with the events of the past few days than it seemed.

"All right," he said. "Guess this isn't the weirdest thing that's ever happened to me."

So, taking a deep breath, he began to follow the light down the tunnel, further in until the dim outline of the opening was lost to darkness.

* * *

 ** _Station Square - night_**

Eggman seemed entirely unaware of his competition at first - at least until Tails landed on the back of his Egg Mobile from above.

"Wha-?" His head snapped up, startled, at the thud of Tails' shoes on the high-backed seat. "You little twerp!"

"Give it up, Eggman!" Tails clung onto the seat and ducked at Eggman swiped wildly above his head, trying to grab him. "You're not detonating that missile!"

"Gah!" Eggman abandoned his attempts to grab hold of Tails in favor of rocking his vehicle from side to side, trying to dislodge him. "Get off my Egg Mobile!"

"Sure thing!"

Eggman looked up again, clearly not having expected that response, just as Tails lifted off once again - without letting go. He rose just high enough that his feet no longer touched the seat, keeping a firm grip on the seat back, and then yanked as hard as he could to the side.

The Egg Mobile was wrenched off course - not far, but enough that Eggman had to swerve sharply to avoid crashing into the side of a skyscraper. Tails let out a triumphant "Ha!" as he rose higher, flying above the building Eggman had just dodged. There was the missile, straight ahead! He sped up, flying faster than he ever had in his life, all exhaustion forgotten.

He was close… so close….

He stretched out his hands as he reached it and slapped them against the side of the missile, like it and he were embroiled in a simple game of tag. "Got it!" he yelled, sliding down until his feet touched the ground.

The missile seemed to have landed in a small open square in the midst of the commercial downtown area. A few citizens stood in the open, watching him with a mixture of confusion and apprehension, but most were either gone, or huddled in nearby alleys, eyeing the spectacle.

"So you beat me to the missile, you little pipsqueak."

Tails turned to glare at Eggman, who had floated up mere seconds behind him.

"Get out of here!" he yelled. The few citizens standing in the square gasped and backed away, until Tails stood alone against the doctor.

One tiny fox against a ruthless, maniacal genius.

"I won't let you steal this victory from me," Eggman said. Little chills began to run up Tails' spine. The doctor's voice had lowered an octave and he sounded more dangerous than he ever had. "Away, before I make mincemeat out of you."

"No! I won't let you hurt these people!"

"Very well…."

The Egg Mobile shot into the sky, and for a brief moment Tails stood in shock, wondering if that was really all it would take.

Then it thundered back down - with an upgrade.

Four huge, solid metal legs extended from the bottom of the vehicle, and at the back of the seat where Tails had clung only a minute ago, two missile launchers, pointed straight at him. Tails hadn't even realized he'd stumbled back until his back hit the unexploded missile embedded in the pavement. His heart was pounding rapidly and his mouth had gone dry.

"Change your mind, fox boy?"

Tails struggled to get himself under control. He was hyperventilating, shaking. "I'm not scared," he muttered, clenching his fists, but it sounded like a lie even to himself.

He'd never fought something like this alone before. With Sonic at his side, sure - he was nearly fearless. But on his own…?

 _No._

He had to do this. No one else was left to defend the city. If there was ever a time to become a hero, it was now.

All he needed was a little confidence.

"I'm not scared!" he repeated, shouting it up at Eggman and taking a step forward. Eggman's self-righteous expression changed back to a scowl at Tails' words.

"Very well," he said, and one of the legs of the contraption lifted off the ground, rising above Tails' head. "Then prepare to meet your fate!"

The foot came crashing down above him, and Tails barely rolled out of the way in time, the pavement shattering where he had stood just a second before. He rolled back to his feet and ran underneath the walker, and Eggman saw him - he slammed the central body down in attempt to squash him and missed by a hair.

There was no way Tails could beat this thing through force. That was Sonic and Knuckles' domain - and Amy's, the way she wielded that hammer of hers. But if he was going to defeat Eggman, he'd have to use his head.

Luckily, Tails was good at that.

The walker stomped around to face him, and Tails got the feeling that Eggman wasn't even after the missile anymore - he just wanted to see Tails destroyed. _At least he's not trying to blow up the city anymore_ , he thought wryly, knowing all too well that that came at the cost of his own safety.

The panels on the missile launchers over Eggman's head opened, and Tails scrambled as they fired, feeling the heat of the impacts on the pavement behind him, small shockwaves pushing him forward and making him stumble. Screams rang out - more people had gathered in the nearby alleys, watching the fight. One of Eggman's missiles went awry and smashed into a nearby building, sending shattered glass and chunks of wall flying across the square.

Tails covered his face to avoid the glass and ran blindly into something solid, bouncing back painfully. He opened his eyes to find that it was one of the walker's legs, which was already lifting up to try to crush him once again. This time, when Tails dodged, he did so in an upwards direction and landed on top of the leg as soon as it came down, putting him nearly eye level with Eggman.

Tails couldn't stand against missile barrages. But if he could take out this thing's legs….

"Get off my machine, pest!"

Tails windmilled his arms, nearly losing his balance as Eggman raised the leg again, trying to shake him off, but he spotted what he was looking for. The leg extended from the body of the Egg Mobile, but it was a fragile connection, probably thrown together in a night, and a loose bolt caught his eye. Shoddy work….

He continued to cling on tight with both his hands and legs, and yelled, "You'll have to shoot me off!"

Eggman's face was by now an ugly shade of red. Tails knew he wouldn't risk firing a missile at his own walker, even to take Tails down. Instead, he yelled in rage, grabbed something from the interior of his mobile and threw it at Tails, who instead of dodging, caught it. It was heavier than he expected, and as he continued to hold on tight as Eggman shook the leg once more, he took a look.

 _I can't believe it_ ….

Of all the things Eggman could have thrown at him, he'd thrown a _wrench_. He might as well have handed Tails his defeat on a silver platter.

He tried to pull himself closer to the bolt, but a particularly violent shudder made him lose his grip and he tumbled to the ground.

 _Maybe a bronze platter_.

"Ha!" Eggman's laugh rang out from above, and Tails shook his head, realizing that he had landed on his back, directly underneath the central body. "Say goodnight, Tails!"

The thing came crashing down - and hit the pavement as Tails rolled. The leg was directly above him now, and before Eggman could lift the walker back up, Tails fit the wrench around the bolt, yanking to the side. It came out cleanly and clinked against the pavement as it fell.

He stood and ran until he was far enough away to watch the results.

The walker tried to stand back up, and shuddered. A horrible screeching noise tore through the square, metal grinding against metal, as the leg tried to support the weight of the walker - and then with a satisfying crunch, the joint disintegrated and the leg collapsed onto the ground.

 _"No!_ You - you little - "

The walker was still standing, but shakily, tilting in the direction of its missing leg. Tails' handiwork had severely incapacitated it; if it tried to walk now, it would most likely topple over permanently. Eggman pounded on the console of his machine in a rage, apparently having run out of names to call Tails, and then the missile launcher panels opened again

Tails tensed. He had one shot.

He sprinted forward at full speed directly underneath the walker just as the rest of the missiles fired. Earsplitting explosions rang out as the missiles tried to follow him only to impact against the very machine than had fired them, and Tails found himself knocked off his feet by the blast shockwave, tumbling forward until he rolled to a stop, heat washing over him.

The cacophony continued behind him, then stopped.

For a moment, everything was silent.

Tails shakily raised himself up off the ground on his hands and knees, and turned in slight apprehension to look behind him. Where the walker had stood before was now occupied by a pile of broken metal legs, the Egg Mobile detached and already gone. The missiles had hit the walker's three remaining feet and all but demolished them, causing the entire thing to collapse.

He stood, hardly daring to believe what had just happened. High above, he could see a speck speeding away from the scene, and Tails realized it was the Egg Mobile. Eggman had bailed without so much as a parting taunt.

 _Because I beat him_.

He stood in shock, realizing he could hear scattered clapping. Then cheers, then screams of joy. People were flooding out of the side streets back into the square, cheering for Eggman's defeat. For… him.

 _I did it._

"He did it!" "He saved the city!" "I can't believe it!"

"I did it," he repeated aloud. He, Tails, on his own - with no help from anyone else.

Sonic would be so proud of him when he found out.

 _Wait - Sonic!_

"Oh!" In the commotion, Tails had completely forgotten about him. Amy had left to help him fight Eggman, but Eggman had shown up here in the city instead. If Eggman had been telling the truth, he'd left Sonic stranded in the middle of the Mystic Ruins jungle - and Amy had no idea. It looked like Tails was the only one with any knowledge of what was going on.

He turned to leave and instead found his hand being seized by someone much taller than him - a human man in a suit, looking harried. "Young man!" he said theatrically, loud enough for everyone in the surrounding crowd to hear. "You've just saved Station Square!"

"Yes," Tails said, allowing his hand to be shaken a couple times before pulling away, "but I can't stick around. I have to find Sonic and Amy and tell them what - "

"Sonic?" Several heads turned as the man repeated the name. "The famous hero? Are you affiliated with him, Mr.…?"

"Just call me Tails. And Sonic's my best friend." He tried to walk away, but the man stopped him again.

"Wait!" He pointed at the missile, still sticking diagonally out of the pavement. "We must get photos, young man! This is a great feat of heroics you have just pulled off, after all!"

Tails raised an eyebrow. _If this is what being a famous hero is like…._

"We can get them later, _after_ I've found my friends, and presumably after _you've_ called a bomb disposal team to take care of that thing."

"Oh - right, of course." The man, still looking agitated, pulled a cellphone out of his pocket and turned back to the crowd. "Everyone clear the area! And someone, get me GUN security!"

As the crowd began to disperse, many still craning their necks to get a look at their hero, Tails started down the street again, heading directly for the train station. He hoped the trains were still operating after all the commotion. And despite his irritation with the man, almost certainly the mayor, Tails couldn't deny that deep inside, the praise made him feel good.

He was a hero, just like his hero.


	11. Heartless Colleague

**_Ancient temple - night_**

Sonic quickly found that the temple went far deeper than it looked from the outside. The orange light led him through a large, darkened chamber, the air thick with dust from centuries of abandonment - if not more - then down a series of spiraling stone steps that seemed to descend forever.

"How deep does this thing go?" he asked the light, which simply bobbed up and down as it had in response to every other comment he'd made so far.

At the bottom of the steps, the narrow passageway opened up into a vast underground hall. The ceiling stretched up into darkness, the pillars that held it up obscured by shadows, but Sonic was surprised to see the path ahead was lit by tall, thin torches that flickered gloomily. _How old is this place?_ Were those fires recently lit, by another visitor… or was there something stranger at play here?

He followed the light, which had begun to bob in apparent excitement, down the path in the center of the hall, made from bricks of stone and bordered on either side by shallow, rectangular pools of water that seemed to ripple oddly, despite the stillness of the air in the chamber. At the end of the path were several more stone steps, which ended at a wall with carvings covering every inch of it. The light flew up, past markings that Sonic couldn't decipher, and stopped in the middle, illuminating the centerpiece of the mural just enough for Sonic to see.

It depicted some kind of huge monster, scaly and serpentine with rows of dagger teeth, emerging from a body of water. It appeared to be roaring, attacking small figures beneath it marked with strange symbols. Warriors, maybe? Sonic noticed something on the creature's head, what looked like a bubble of water containing some small object… a jellyfish?

Sonic squinted, stepping closer. No, not a jellyfish. A brain.

His eyes widened.

"Wait - is this - ?"

The orange light spiraled around him, and the carvings of the mural brightened until his vision whited out completely.

* * *

 ** _Unknown location - unknown time_**

Sonic blinked several times, feeling strangely lightheaded, as though he'd stood up too fast. Everything around him was far too bright, in stark contrast to the dark of the temple interior.

The white finally cleared, but when he opened his eyes, the mural was gone.

He was standing under a dark sky at the end of a long bridge spanning a river, leading to an island on the other side. Straight ahead of the bridge, a huge stone altar burned, casting an ominous red light over the scene, the brightest thing in the otherwise dark night.

"What the…?" Was this some kind of dream?

There was only one obvious course of action available to him. He braced himself and tore across the bridge, skidding to a stop as soon as the altar was more clearly visible. Glancing around only brought a sharp, unpleasant jolt to his stomach.

At least a dozen tiny chao lay on the ground, unmoving. _Please just be injured_ , he begged them silently, but the several he could see from here whose eyes stared blankly into nothingness told a different story. Broken weapons littered the ground, abandoned. The altar was nearly completely engulfed in flames, and Sonic could see something green glimmering at the top, the light of the fire reflecting on it.

In the center of the disturbing scene stood a figure that Sonic had somehow missed on the first pass - an echidna, he was surprised to see.

"Hey!" He ran up to her side. She simply stared ahead at the altar, tears cascading down her cheeks.

"Why?" she whispered, her voice trembling. "Why did this have to happen?"

Sonic just stood, for once completely at a loss.

The echidna took a deep breath, not seeming to notice Sonic's presence at her side. "I… I have to stop this."

She began to walk with a slight limp toward the altar, toward the flames. Sonic tried to go after her, only to find that every muscle in his body had seized up. That more than anything was what sent him into a brief panic, struggling to move as he helplessly watched the girl move closer to the heat, and to the glimmering thing at the top of the stone steps.

The fire seemed to grow larger, brighter, until his sight was filled with it.

* * *

 ** _Ancient temple - night_**

Sonic came back to himself with a sharp gasp, released abruptly from his paralysis. He was standing back outside the temple in the jungle, the wind whispering quietly through the leaves of the trees around the clearing. The night air felt cool and refreshing after the disturbing vision. He bent down, automatically running through a few stretches just to convince himself he could move again.

 _What was that all about?_ he wondered silently, bending one knee and extending the other leg out to the side. _A dream? But it didn't feel exactly like a dream_ ….

The orange light that had shown him the way, whatever it was, was gone. He had the strangest feeling that it had led him down there just to give him that vision, but… why? What did it mean? And the mural of Chaos… as far as he knew, he and Knuckles had defeated it back on the now-destroyed Egg Carrier, but if some mysterious light still felt the need to warn him about it, perhaps this wasn't the end of that particular Eggman scheme.

And speaking of Eggman….

Sonic's head snapped up at the sound of a very familiar set of engines. Above him, flying over the jungle canopy, was none other than the Egg Mobile, and even though it was high up Sonic could hear Eggman grumbling to himself in a quiet fury. He straightened, watching the vehicle zoom away above the trees. Eggman was clearly heading somewhere in a hurry - most likely his base.

 _Well, if that's where he's going, it'd be rude of me not to show up for the party._

Sonic darted underneath the cover of the thicker trees further from the edge of the temple clearing, and began to follow silently, tracking Eggman above by the engine lights shining against the sky.

* * *

 ** _Windy Valley - night_**

Gamma had made its way through the valley in the ruins where it had located the ping from Delta. Along the way, it discovered that its brother had apparently been accompanied by several of Dr. Robotnik's lesser robot models, mostly the assembly line ones but also a few that swam through the air like strange snakes. Gamma had blasted every single one into metal shards. It was not just the E-100 series Gamma wished to save now - any robot created by the doctor was better off destroyed.

Delta's blue frame became visible as Gamma rounded a corner, standing on a ledge with a precarious drop to the sea not far off. As Gamma had expected, it had been upgraded - once identical to Gamma, its only hand had been replaced with a second cannon. Built for battle - nothing else.

"Gamma," it said as Gamma approached, turning its head slightly.

"The Egg Carrier has been destroyed," Gamma told it. It turned around fully at that.

"Is the doctor safe?"

Gamma raised its cannon and locked onto Delta, painting it precautionarily. "The doctor is using us." It didn't expect this to work - it didn't have the persuasive powers of a young hedgehog girl, but it would try anyway. For her. "Reject your programming. Reject the doctor and fight with me against him."

There was a long, long silence as Delta regarded it impassively. Then it said one flat word.

"Traitor."

And Gamma fired.

* * *

 ** _Mystic Ruins - night_**

In the end, Amy had managed to catch an hour or so of sleep on the train ride to the ruins, as had Birdie. But as they finally pulled into the station, she was awake, standing at the door and ready to go.

She emerged onto the platform when they slid open, grateful that this time she'd had comfortable seats and a smooth ride instead of being trapped in the claws of a terrifying robot the entire way. The platform was silent and dark, only a single station employee standing in wait.

"Miss!" Amy bounded up to her. The woman looked frazzled, as though she was trying to stay awake through intense exhaustion. She peered down at Amy.

"What's a little girl like you doing at the Mystic Ruins at a time like this?"

"Something really important!"

"Chirp chirp!"

The station master stared at Birdie in bemusement.

"You wouldn't happen to know where Sonic went, did you?"

"Sonic? That blue hedgehog everyone says is a hero?" The woman shook her head. "Haven't seen him since that incident yesterday with the robot."

Amy elected not to mention that he'd been chasing her kidnapper, and persisted. "Well, did ya see anything else? Anything weird around here?"

"Oh, yeah, we got weird covered. Some kinda huge warship crashed down out there a few hours ago." She pointed out toward the ocean. "All the way out there, in the water. No one knows what it was, but apparently it flew over the city yesterday and terrified everyone outta their pants."

"I was right!" _Sonic must be around here somewhere after all!_ To the woman Amy said, "What about Eggman? Do you know him? Did you see anyone flying around here?"

Seeming more confused by the moment, the woman simply said, "Well, I dunno about this 'Eggman' fellow, but I did see something else flying overhead not long ago. Something small. Looked like it was heading for the jungle - that way."

"That's him!" Amy leaped into the air - her search was going splendidly so far. "Thanks, lady!"

"Wait, wait," the woman said, now looking concerned. "You're not thinking of going _into_ the jungle, are you? Especially at this time of night? I thought you were just some nosy kid, but - you'll get lost in there without a guide!"

Amy shook her finger, confidence burning within her. "Not a chance," she said. "Sonic's probably in there, and if there's anyone who can find him, it's _me!"_

And she took off down the wooden steps, the station master calling after her fruitlessly, "Just how old _are_ you, anyway?"

* * *

 ** _Eggman's jungle base - night_**

Sonic didn't have to follow Eggman long before he found exactly what he was looking for. Ahead, the tree line ended, followed shortly by a sharp dropoff to more jungle far below. Eggman's vehicle sped over the dropoff, floating gently downward, and Sonic waited for the lights of his engines to disappear from view before rushing to the edge to take a look.

In the middle of the trees below was a cluster of lights surrounding the edges of a huge dark shape - no doubt Eggman's hidden base within the jungle. Sonic grinned to himself. He'd found it. With this, he could head down into Eggman's heart of operations and put him out of commission for a while, enough to disrupt whatever plans he might have for Station Square.

To his right he could see another dark shape just at the top of the dropoff. Moving closer revealed it to be a small elevator, which would no doubt grant him access to the base - if it would work for him at all. He approached it with caution, wondering what sort of nasty security features it might be equipped with. A net to capture any potential intruders? Lasers to zap them? Perhaps even a specialized personal trap, specifically installed to target Sonic himself?

One gloved finger reached out and pushed the _down_ button. Sonic held his breath, ready to dart out of the way of any hazards….

 _Ding!_

The doors slid open.

He let out his breath in a surprised laugh as he stepped inside and the doors shut automatically behind him. Apparently Eggman wasn't nearly as smart as he claimed.

* * *

 ** _Red Mountain - early morning_**

Another barrage of missiles impacted the cave wall, sending shattered shards of stone scattering over Gamma as it sidestepped the blast. It responded with one last missile of its own, which hit its target dead on.

Epsilon stopped shooting, rocked on its heels, and toppled over stiffly. A small panel opened on its side, the same as had happened with Delta, and a small, dark blue bird flitted out, chirping rapidly and streaking toward the first opening it saw in the rock walls leading to the outside.

Then Epsilon's shell went up in flames.

"E-104 Epsilon rescue: complete."

Gamma lowered its cannon. The fight with Delta earlier had been almost identical. Despite their upgrades, Gamma found it unusually easy to defeat them, as if it was pitting itself against far inferior models even though _it_ was of inferior physical design after their retrofits. It wondered if it had something to do with its programming. Not only had the doctor endlessly sung its praises before it had gone rogue - but going rogue had been the first thing it had decided for itself. The hedgehog girl had seen something in it….

 _It heard footsteps as she exited the cell, her bird softly twittering at her side. "You're not like the other robots, huh?" she said. It didn't turn, but it knew she was watching it. "You've got a soft spot inside that metal frame of yours."_

Different. Unique. Gamma's database returned these words that seemed relevant to the topic. It didn't know what this might mean for it and other E-series robots on a larger scale, but perhaps it didn't matter in the end.

One thing was certain, however. Dr. Robotnik had powered his E-100 series with living, organic creatures. Both Delta and Epsilon had released one upon their system failure, and Gamma knew there must be one inside it as well. Perhaps this was even the source of its consciousness - a literal soft spot inside its metal frame, providing brainpower, creative thinking, independence.

Perhaps it was not Gamma's processors, but this creature, that had been listening so closely to the hedgehog girl.

And once Gamma's final purpose - free the rest of the E-100 series - had been achieved….

Well, it would deal with that once the others had been rescued.

For now, Gamma had a new challenge. Zeta and Beta had not responded to its locator signal, which meant Gamma had no leads on where they might be. The search would become harder from here.

 _It looked up, saw the figure suspended in the middle of the automated workstation, probes and screwdrivers and other tools prodding and working away at it from all sides. Spare parts scattered on the floor, the figure so disassembled that it would never have been recognizable had it not been for the designation painted onto the side of the scrap closest to the door…._

Gamma had last seen Beta on the Egg Carrier, just before the attack on the warship had begun. It didn't know if either Beta or Zeta had escaped like Delta and Epsilon had, but this was its best lead.

Gamma turned back the way it had come, past pits of lava bubbling in the center of the volcano, ready to complete its mission once and for all.

* * *

 ** _Angel Island - early morning_**

Knuckles had been trudging through wild, untamed jungle for what felt like forever, though in reality it couldn't have been more than a few hours. Despite the direction that Big had provided him, he'd gotten turned around somehow, something which frustrated him to no end. He'd lived in the wilds on Angel Island his entire life, he didn't know how one lousy jungle could have gotten him so lost.

But finally, he'd made it out, and from there it hadn't been difficult to track down where Angel Island still sat, grounded next to the Mystic Ruins. Stepping onto its familiar grass again was an instant comfort. Once again, he was back home - and this time, he didn't intend to leave.

But he'd only been walking for a few minutes before his mood immediately soured again.

Coming from the direction of Red Mountain, rolling evenly along the grass, was a robot - the same robot, in fact, that Knuckles and Big had followed all the way onto the Egg Carrier. Knuckles' eyes narrowed. What was _this_ thing doing on his island?

He marched up to the robot, fists clenched. "You!" he called as soon as he got close enough. The robot stopped and stared at him. "What are you doing here? Did Eggman send you to snoop around?"

The robot fixed him in its gaze and said, "I no longer recognize Dr. Robotnik as my master."

"Yeah, right." _Looks like Eggman's machines are smart enough to lie now_. Knuckles raised his fists, ready for a fight, but the robot raised its non-cannon hand in a _calm-down_ gesture - something Knuckles had not expected.

"I am not here to fight you." It twisted its upper half around to point back toward Red Mountain. "I destroyed E-104 Epsilon inside the volcano. That robot was, as you say, snooping."

Knuckles lowered his hands slowly.

"You may investigate its remains for yourself."

After a moment, Knuckles sighed. "I followed you onto the Egg Carrier yesterday, along with the cat whose pet frog you stole."

"The frog. Yes. That was when I still recognized the doctor as my master." The robot bent slightly closer as though peering at him intently. "Are you a friend of the hedgehog girl?"

 _The… hedgehog girl?_ "Amy?" Knuckles said, baffled as to why it was suddenly taking an interest in Sonic's lovesick tagalong of all things.

"The hedgehog girl. Amy. Yes. She is the one who set me free." The robot paused. "I am E-102 Gamma. I never thanked her. I hoped you would pass along this message: she is my friend, and I no longer follow the doctor's orders."

Knuckles just stared. Bizarre. This was bizarre. "I'll, uh… do my best." Then he cleared his throat. "Now get off my island. I still don't trust strangers lurking around this place, no matter how benign they claim to be."

"Affirmative." It walked past him, increasing its speed via the little wheels attached to its feet.

"And if you're not off by the time the island rises, I'll kick you over the edge myself."

He watched until Gamma had disappeared over a hilltop and sighed, feet tracing the familiar path back to the Master Emerald's altar. The last three shards were in his hand now, and he swore he could feel them faintly tingling, as though eager to be reunited with the rest of the emerald.

The walk from where he stood back to the altar was a short one, but in his anticipation it felt like forever, But finally, the familiar worn stone and crumbled pillars came into view, and Knuckles picked up his pace.

The sky was no longer so dark as he reached the top - it was more of a hopeful gray, one edge of the horizon brightening into a light blue. The incomplete emerald was still there just as he had left it, shimmering dully with the chunk missing from its side. Knuckles extended his hand, the shards resting on his palm, and as before, the shards began to float, then spin gently around the rest of the emerald. He closed his eyes as light flashed, and kept them closed, holding his breath, waiting.

For a moment, all he heard was birds twittering in the trees, signaling morning to one another.

Then the ground shifted under his feet.

He felt a smile cross his face, a real, genuine one, and opened his eyes in time to see the island begin to rise, leaving solid ground behind. For the first few moments a cacophonous noise of grinding rocks echoed out as the bottom of Angel Island scraped along the higher parts of the Mystic Ruins, and then nothing but a gently rustling breeze as it took to the air completely. Knuckles almost felt like jumping up and cheering, but he opted instead to sit down quietly on the top step of the altar, watching the Master Emerald as it glittered, whole and restored where it should be, as the island rose higher.

Over the horizon, the first sliver of sun began to appear.

* * *

 ** _Eggman's jungle base - early morning_**

Sonic was falling - and yelling.

It wasn't his fault. He'd been speeding through the base as fast as possible, looking for the center, where Eggman would surely be hiding, plotting his next move. Sonic had ended up on a conveyor line of robots, standing freshly constructed and not yet activated, and he'd dashed through them gleefully, sending scattered parts flying everywhere to clog up the machines. The best way to stick it to Eggman was to ruin the inner workings of his base and render it unusable, at least Sonic figured so. And even if this would only turn out to be a temporary setback for the doctor, it was fun. That was reason enough for Sonic to do it.

But he hadn't accounted for the conveyor's speed added to his own, and the end of the line had snuck up on him far faster than he'd expected. When he saw the edge he attempted to skid to a stop, but the endlessly moving conveyor carried him forward - and dumped him into this seemingly neverending pit.

It was so dark, he couldn't even see the bottom.

 _I need to slow down_ was not a phrase he'd ever thought he'd say, but this time it was true. Sonic saw a beam flash by his face and made a grab for it, but missed, tumbling with the force of his grab. He resigned himself to a very hard and painful landing - his third in the past two days - and squeezed his eyes shut.

It never came.

When he opened his eyes, he realized that warm air was buffeting him up from below, keeping him aloft. He grinned even as he continued to tumble wildly in midair. His fall had been stopped by a giant cooling fan.

Sonic managed to regain enough control of his tumble to take in his surroundings, spotting solid metal plating just beyond the fan on the ground. He angled himself just enough to float to the side, out of the path of the fan, and landed with an " _oomph_ " on the floor.

This base went far deeper than he had anticipated. He'd initially thought it a simple staging ground, perhaps where Eggman had constructed the Egg Carrier and launched it, and certainly where he planned to stage his takeover of Station Square from as well. In addition to conveyor lines full of various robot models, Sonic had encountered other lines producing ship parts. Were they just replacement parts for the now-destroyed air fortress?

Sonic shook his head. It didn't matter. Eggman's plans here were going up in smoke one way or another - and it looked like his next challenge on that path was entering the room through a partially hidden door on the other side of the fan.

Airborne purple robots with spinning blades whirling around them in a circle, staring Sonic down with angled eyes that were probably intended to look menacing. They whizzed toward him, blades whipping around like a weed whacker, but Sonic only had to jump once to spot their weakness. On the downward arc he brought his feet crashing down on the bare, unprotected metal head of the first one and used it as a stepping stool, jumping just before it exploded and giving the same treatment to each of the others in turn until all that was left was a pile of scrap and a few still-twitching blades.

He couldn't resist twisting around and giving their remains a cocky grin before he rushed on ahead through the door they'd opened for him.

The next room was filled with more machine parts, giant claws extending out of the ceiling and walls to grab the parts and piece them together. Instead of bypassing them entirely Sonic decided to have some fun, darting in among the parts, rolling and sliding underneath the claws. Several times he felt the claws brush up against his spines, making a grab for him instead of the parts, but he slipped out of their reach easily and kept running.

At the end of the assembly line room, more robots were waiting - squarish floating ones that looked somewhat similar to the robot Amy had protected back on the Egg Carrier. For a second Sonic hesitated, slowing his pace marginally - but these ones looked dumb, mass-produced. They weren't about to gain a conscience and befriend him.

Just before reaching them, he leapt, intending to pass them by entirely in his eagerness to fight Eggman instead of his drones, but apparently the robots had a different idea. Sonic's feet had only just touched the ground on the other side of them when some kind of force field lifted him up again, causing his muscles to seize up. He could breathe, but not much else.

For a moment he struggled fruitlessly against whatever invisible force was holding him, and then something solid hit him hard from behind, sending him flying forward.

"Agh!" Sonic hit the ground, coughing with the force of the blow, but able to move again. He was back on his feet instantly, spinning in time to see one of the robots in the process of reattaching its head, which was apparently the thing that had immobilized him, leaving its body free to move closer and punch him. Its friends were moving in now, and Sonic could see their heads beginning to detach as well.

"All right, you want some?" He leapt into the air again, high above them. From here, they weren't able to reach him, and he curled into a ball before homing in, smashing each one to pieces. On top of the last one he unfurled, performing a stylish backflip and landing effortlessly just beyond the pile of wrecked robot parts, dusting off his gloves. _Hope Eggman was watching that one._

Then he was off again, careening around a corner. Up ahead was another assembly room, but this one didn't seem to have a clear exit. On a stroke of inspiration, Sonic pushed off the ground with all his strength and grabbed hold of a machine claw, using his momentum to swing it around directly into the wall behind it. It punched through easily, and Sonic rolled as he landed in the adjacent room, stopping the roll down on one knee to take stock of where he had ended up.

He raised an eyebrow, vaguely disturbed by what he saw.

This place was obviously some kind of shooting range, judging from the targets around the room - but the targets were not flat bull's-eyes. They were dolls attached to poles and spikes, dolls shaped like Tails, Knuckles… and himself.

"Yeesh," he muttered, looking at one of his own dolls and eyeing its shoddy craftsmanship. Then he flashed a grin at the others. "Wonder what poor robot Eggy put in charge of sewing stuffed animals."

Sonic chuckled to himself for a few moments, then moved on. He didn't have all day to stand around laughing at dolls in the likeness of himself and his friends, after all.

There were more dolls throughout the next few corridors, but Sonic ignored them at first. After a few hallways he came across another robot with a gun for an arm, blasting one of his own dolls into stuffing. It turned just in time to see Sonic leaping for it.

"Now let's see how you do against the real thing!"

His feet smashed into its face, and the satisfying crunch of metal echoed against the walls behind him as he raced on, leaving the robot's remains in his wake.

Coming through another door, clearly the exit to the shooting range, Sonic knew he had to be close. The hallways were looking less industrial now, more like something Eggman himself would be strolling on a daily basis. As much fun as fighting robots was, Sonic was now grateful for the opportunity to run straight without interruption. He could hear faint alarms in other parts of the base, but nothing close by.

An open door flashed by on his left and he immediately skidded to a stop, running back to take a look. Inside was a plethora of what looked like control panels… and above them, a window. _This deep underground?_ Sonic approached it, and was rewarded with exactly what he had been looking for.

Beyond the window lay a cavernous open space - big enough to hold the Egg Carrier, certainly. It looked empty from here, but Sonic leaned forward until he spied a catwalk just a few stories below.

A smile spread over his face. _Perfect_.

"Target acquired: blue hedgehog. Last seen in shooting range."

Sonic spun at the flat voice to find several more mass-produced robots in the doorway, cannons locked on him. He gave them a small sarcastic salute. "Sorry, fellas!" he said, taking a casual step back. "I've got a date with your boss, and I don't wanna be late."

"Lock on - fire!"

He backflipped over the missiles that raced toward him, timing it just right - they crashed through the window, and Sonic curled up to avoid the flying glass shards as he fell through the newly-created hole. After several seconds of freefalling, he unfurled and looked down, aiming for the catwalk.

His feet hit the metal grating, and he sidestepped to avoid any more stray glass shards, feeling rather pleased with himself.

"Well," said a familiar voice from behind him, "if it isn't my pal Sonic! I'm surprised you made it this far."

 _Aha!_

Sonic turned to grin at Eggman as he rose up from beneath the catwalk. He appeared to have inserted his Egg Mobile into his most vicious-looking contraption yet - a reinforced center with two spike-lined discs spinning ominously on the sides. As Eggman's machine rose, floating via some unseen force, he could see attached to it a series of metal sections, each about twice as big as Sonic himself, creating a whiplike tail extending from the bottom. And in the center of it all sat Eggman himself, grinning almost ferally.

"Well, you know me." Sonic shot Eggman a casual finger gun. "I don't like to disappoint."

"So what do you think of my newest creation? The Egg Viper!" Eggman spread his arms in a grand gesture, and the tail began to coil upwards, high above Sonic's head. "Allow me to give you a little demonstration of its capabilities!"

Sonic rolled to the side just as the tail came smashing down on the catwalk with a screech of stressed metal. He'd barely regained his footing when he noticed the Viper turning sideways, revealing little cannons on the sides aiming straight for him.

He took off, racing along the catwalk as lasers began to scorch the metal behind him. He was able to outrun them easily, but they just kept coming, the Viper barely managing to keep pace with him. Eggman howled with laughter in the cockpit, and Sonic glared at him. He had to take out those laser cannons if he was gonna beat this thing.

Sonic put on a brief burst of speed, and as the Viper gunned its engines to keep up, he slowed abruptly, causing the next laser barrage to strike just ahead of him. Before the cannons could recharge, he leapt up and spun into them, shredding them with his spines.

"You nasty little hedgehog!"

Sonic bounced off the side of the Viper and landed back on the catwalk, shooting Eggman another grin. "Still slow, I see!"

The Viper came to a halt, hovering in place in front of him, and spun to face him head on. A panel opened at the front, revealing a significantly bigger cannon in the nose.

 _Oh, great…._

The shot it fired was significantly more explosive, and Sonic had to dart a good distance to avoid the blast radius. The catwalk extended all along the side of the massive room, as far as Sonic could tell - but if Eggman kept this up, destroying section after section as he was, he'd soon run out of space to avoid his attacks.

Eggman cackled as he swooped up next to Sonic, already aiming another shot. "Running won't save you this time, you pest!"

The front of the cannon lit up - but Sonic's eyes were drawn to the tail. It was extended forward for balance, the tip hovering just underneath the catwalk where Sonic stood.

That gave him an idea.

Just as the cannon fired, Sonic dove forward underneath the laser, landing precariously on the tail and racing up toward the body. The heat from the blast hit him from behind, but he ignored it, jumping once he reached the tail's base and finding himself face to face with the recharging cannon - and Eggman.

Sonic winked, then kicked the cannon with all the force he could muster.

The front of it crumpled, and Sonic used the force of the kick to bounce back onto the walkway, narrowly avoiding a landing on the superheated metal from the laser. He took a moment to admire his handiwork. Only the barrel of the cannon was damaged - it was far too large to destroy with a single kick - but if Eggman tried to fire it now, the blast would erupt inside the machine, destroying it from the inside out.

 _"Gah!"_ Eggman pounded on his console in a fury. "I'm not done with you yet!"

And the Viper dove underneath the catwalk.

Sonic froze in place, then began to run cautiously further to the side. He didn't know what Eggman was planning next, but whatever it was, it couldn't be good -

 _Crash!_

The Viper slammed from below into the rapidly approaching end of the catwalk, sending a significant chunk of it spinning off into empty space below. Sonic screeched to a halt, trapped between a long, possibly deadly fall and a death machine.

One of the spiked discs on the side of the Viper detached, floating parallel to the walkway, and began to spin, slicing the air wickedly. Then it shot out at Sonic, who took a running start and barely managed to slide under the gap between it and the metal grating, avoiding being slashed to bits. The disc whizzed above him, then returned to the Viper, reattaching itself.

"You can only do that so many times!" Eggman shouted as he dove again. Sonic scrambled back to his feet, and a second later the Viper returned, smashing another section of the catwalk to bits. Sonic had maybe fifty feet left, at best.

The second disc detached and began to spin as well. Sonic narrowed his eyes. The top of the disc was smooth… and he could see something at the edge of the machine's body, where the discs had been attached, something that looked like a power source….

Eggman let the disc fly at the same time Sonic jumped straight up.

For a moment he hung in the air, feeling like everything was moving in slow motion, watching the disc fly past underneath him. _Come back, come back…._

And then it returned like a boomerang, and Sonic landed squarely in the center of it. It raced back to the Viper, and just as it began to flip sideways to reattach itself Sonic leapt again - curling into a ball and slamming straight into the side of the machine.

He felt the metal crunch underneath his spines and bounced back onto the catwalk, and for a moment, there was near silence.

Then the Viper's power source exploded, and a second later the cannon misfired. Shards of metal flew out as the Viper's frame began to tear itself apart, and within seconds the thing had been consumed by flamed. From the midst of the blast a small vehicle shot out, the Egg Mobile looking as though it had been blasted out by force rather than voluntarily ejected.

It flew up towards the ceiling - but at that moment Sonic realized with a jolt of surprise that the ceiling was opening, gigantic panels sliding outward to reveal a gray morning sky, which a screaming Eggman quickly disappeared into.

"Hey, Sonic!"

Sonic's head whipped upwards at a familiar voice.

 _"Amy?"_

Sure enough, Amy was leaning out of the window of the very control room he'd broken into just a few minutes ago, waving and smiling broadly at him.

"What are you _doing_ here?" he called up to her in alarm. "Don't you know it's dangerous?"

He took a quick running start diagonally across what was left of the catwalk, then leapt up onto an overhead beam, making his way back to the shattered window.

"Of _course_ I do, silly," Amy huffed as his hand caught the edge of the window, thankfully free of any stray glass shards. She grabbed hold and pulled him up easily, leaving Sonic quietly surprised at her strength. He clambered the rest of the way through and dusted himself off. "That's why I came to help! Birdie and I were worried about you."

The bird chirped an affirmation from her shoulder. Sonic just stared in amazement.

"Looks like you didn't need much help, though," she added, folding her arms. "I only had to follow the trail of destruction through this place to find you - hardly ran into any robots at all. But the few I did got a taste of my hammer!"

Amy produced the hammer from seemingly nowhere and struck a little pose with it, Birdie twittering in approval. Sonic just shook his head. Maybe he shouldn't be so surprised at the lengths she'd go to find him.

"Amy, we gotta get out of here. I already beat Eggman and messed up his production lines, there's no sense in sticking around." He grabbed her wrist, intending to pull her out of the room and down the hall, but she pulled away, a faint blush spreading nevertheless across her cheeks at the contact.

"Um, no." She pointed out the window at the now-open ceiling. "Why d'ya think I opened that? _That's_ our escape route!"

Sonic glanced up. He had to admit, she had a point. But…. "Can you even make those jumps up the walls?"

Her blush deepened. "Oh no, I can't." She clasped her hands behind her and swayed gently from side to side. "If only there were a brave, strong hedgehog around to help a girl out…."

Sonic just squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head, a little annoyed, but defeated. _"Fine."_ Her eyes lit up, but before she had time to respond Sonic scooped her up in his arms and leapt back out the window.

Amy let out a yelp of shock, but even with the extra weight Sonic was able to compensate. He landed on the beam just below and wasted no time, pushing off onto another, then another, using the wall for extra height whenever he needed it. They climbed higher and higher towards the opening until finally, with one last giant leap, they emerged from the base into the pale morning sunlight.

He alighted on the edge of the opening and set Amy down, bending over to catch his breath after all the excitement. She just laughed, spinning around and letting her dress fan out joyfully. In spite of himself, Sonic smiled. Whatever the danger, at least she was having fun. And it sounded like she had become quite competent since the last time he'd seen her.

"You can't have come here just to help me, though," Sonic said once his breathing had stabilized somewhat. He scanned the skies for the Egg Mobile, but it was gone. Perhaps Eggman was also, for the time being at least. No more plans, no more chaos.

"Well, that _was_ a big reason…." Amy held out the bird on one hand, and Sonic noticed his rather downcast expression. "But I was also trying to help Birdie find his missing family. They were captured by Eggman just like him but couldn't escape, and we don't know where they might be. I thought they might have been in Eggman's base, but I didn't see anything that looked like a prison in there."

"Me neither," Sonic said. "Just a bunch of assembly lines and creepy me-dolls."

Amy wrinkled her nose. "I noticed those. I have to say, they definitely don't do your looks justice…."

Sonic shook his head once again, then scooped her back up into his arms.

"Hey - !" Amy said, startled, as Sonic began to run across the top of the base toward the trees. "What are you doing?"

"We should get back to the Mystic Ruins," he said, building speed gradually so he wouldn't give her whiplash. "And like you said back in Station Square - you can't run as fast as me."

She just giggled. "Nobody can!"

* * *

 ** _Egg Carrier crash site - morning_**

Gamma stood on the deck of the Egg Carrier, ocean waves lapping at its sides not far below. Most of the basic infrastructure of the ship seemed to be intact, but Gamma had observed on its flight over that the engines had completely disintegrated in the crash, their remains snapped off and floating not far away. Multiple spots along the hull were warped and melted, and the Sky Deck appeared to have malfunctioned as it retracted, now nothing but a twisted mass of metal and wiring.

The doctor might be able to salvage some materials from this place, but not much.

Gamma headed for the nearest door it could see, and was surprised to find that it slid open automatically. Inside, the fortress seemed to be running on backup power, with only dim emergency lights lit along the walls to guide its way. This part of the ship seemed relatively intact; Gamma guessed that the remaining members of the E-100 series could have survived such a crash if they had remained inside, away from the malfunctioning inner workings of the ship. It sent out another locator signal, but even after several minutes of walking, it received no pings in response.

 _Could they have been destroyed after all?_

The image of a half-dismantled Beta ran through its processors once again, and it paused. From here, it knew how to navigate to the refitting room. After the frog incident, Delta and Epsilon had been refitted by the doctor. Perhaps Beta was still stuck in that room - or perhaps its retrofit had been finished already.

There was only one way to find out. Gamma traced its steps through the dim halls of the Egg Carrier, taking only one detour to avoid a place where the hallway had been torn to pieces by an explosion from below. It emerged finally into the main room, where the doctor had once addressed them all from his floating pedestal. More images tried to flash through Gamma's mind, but it suppressed them, focusing on the far left door at the end of the room. That was the one.

The door slid open as it approached, and it stepped into the darkened room. In the center, hanging limply from the refitting machine, was not Beta, but the purple frame of Zeta. It appeared to have been in the final stages of an upgrade into a much larger security robot, its outer shell heavily altered into a squatter, more heavily-armed design, before the ship had lost primary power. Its dark eyes illuminated as Gamma approached.

"E-102," it said.

There was no point in drawing this interaction out. Delta and Epsilon had failed to renounce the doctor, and Zeta would most likely refuse as well - but at least this rescue would not end in a fight. Gamma approached Zeta, who could only watch, immobilized in the machine's grasp.

"I am here to save you," it said, and popped Zeta's side panel open. Instantly its eyes went dark, and a small, dark green bird popped out. It recoiled in fright at the sight of Gamma and took off flying down the hallway, chirping frantically.

Gamma stared up at Zeta's dead frame, and raised its cannon. Zeta had no more need for this chassis - Zeta was gone.

And Gamma wouldn't leave enough for the doctor to recover.


	12. The Past

**_Mystic Ruins - morning_**

Sonic hardly slowed down as he raced back through the jungle and the deeper ruins with Amy in his arms, and it wasn't long before they emerged onto the coastal shelf where the train platform was located. He set Amy down, and she had to take a moment to catch her breath, exhilarated by the run.

The Mystic Ruins seemed peaceful to her after the pandemonium of the past few days. The ocean was calm under the rising sun, waves lapping gently at the rocks below the dropoff. Watching the rays sparkle over the water and tasting the salt on the air, Amy could almost believe that every problem they'd faced here had been solved - but the soft weight of Birdie settling back down onto her shoulder reminded her otherwise.

She had one last job to finish.

"By the way," Sonic said to her, also staring out across the water at her side, "what happened to Tails after he flew you off the Egg Carrier? Is he all right?"

"Oh, yeah," Amy said. "I gave him the keys to my apartment and told him to get some rest. Assuming he actually _listened_ , he's fine. He'll probably be heading up here soon to find us, anyway - took enough convincing to actually get him to agree to rest in the first place."

Sonic smiled and gave her a thumbs-up. "Yeah. Kid's had a rough few days. Thanks, Amy."

She felt a familiar heat spreading across her face as she looked up at him. "Um, no problem."

Sonic didn't seem to notice the blush, or if he did, he ignored it, leaving Amy unsure whether to feel relieved or offended. "I'm gonna hang out at his workshop until then - just up the hill there. Oh, poor guy's gonna be so disappointed about his new plane going down with the ship…." He began to walk away, waving a hand over his shoulder. Amy crossed her arms and _hmph_ 'd at herself.

"Why is it I can chase him for miles with no problem, but as soon as he actually says something _nice_ to me I can't even think straight?" she said, frustrated. Birdie began to chirp from her shoulder, and at first Amy thought he was agreeing until he took to wing, hovering in front of her and looking upset.

"Oh - right! Your family!" She stretched out a hand, and Birdie alighted on her finger. "I'm so sorry. I got caught up in my own feelings when I should have been thinking about yours!" Amy walked ahead toward the coastal dropoff, looking out to the water. Now that she took a closer look, some of the shimmer wasn't just sunlight on the waves - there was something large and red out there, light reflecting off it all the way back to shore.

"That nice lady on the platform said the Egg Carrier crashed all the way out there," she said to Birdie. "That's where you originally escaped from - so do you think your family might still be in there!"

The rapid, hopeful twittering was all the response she needed.

"Then let's check it out!"

She ran back up the steps to the train platform, hoping the woman hadn't left. Sure enough, she was still there, standing next to the empty platform, and her tired eyes widened as she saw Amy approach.

"Well I'll be darned," she said, folding her arms. "You're back already. Did you find what you were looking for in that jungle?"

"Yep!" Amy said. The woman seemed taken aback at her abrupt answer. Feeling like boasting a little, she continued, "I got into Eggman's base and helped Sonic escape! We just got back."

The woman stared in silence. Amy got the idea she wasn't a very chatty person.

"And now I have to get to the warship that crashed out there earlier, so I can find Birdie's family!" She gestured to Birdie, who had moved back to her shoulder. "Do you know of a way out there? Is there a boat I can rent, or something?"

The station master stayed silent a moment longer before finally replying. "Yeah, we got boats down below. The station's structure extends all the way down to the water in a little cove underneath. We do rentals."

"How much does it cost to rent one?"

"Uh… you know what, girlie, it costs nothing. If you can infiltrate some evil genius' base and come out unscathed, and with a boyfriend to boot, I think you deserve a free rental."

Amy felt her face heat once again at the woman's comment, but decided to accept it with a smile. "Wow, thanks a lot, ma'am! I really appreciate it!"

"Chirp chirp!"

The woman gestured for Amy to follow, still looking vaguely bewildered, and led her down the stairs and through a lower door that she hadn't noticed before. More wooden stairs wound down until they reached a small dock sitting just above the shallow water at the edge of the cliff, where several boats sat.

The station master untied one and pushed it into the water, watching as Amy climbed in eagerly. "Might wanna put on that life vest in there," she said, pointing at it.

"Got it." Amy slipped it on over her dress and then waved at the woman as she started to paddle away, heading for the Egg Carrier wreck. "Thanks! I should be back soon!"

"Good luck, kid!"

It was lucky the ocean was so calm this morning. Paddling was hard work, but Amy was strong, and calm waters meant she didn't have to fight hard against the waves. She watched the rest of the cliff come into view as she ventured into deeper waters. She hadn't been paddling for more than a few minutes before a blue speck appeared suddenly at the edge of the cliff.

"Amy!" Sonic yelled, looking faintly panicked. "What are you _doing?"_

"I told you!" she yelled back. "I said I was going to help Birdie find his family! We think they might still be on the Egg Carrier, so that's where we're going!"

"By _yourself?"_

"I did all right in Eggman's base earlier!"

"But this is the _middle of the ocean!"_

"I have a life jacket, silly." She waved at him as he paced anxiously at the cliff's edge. "Besides, at least _I_ can swim!"

She giggled at his expression of shock, raising her hand one last time before continuing to paddle out to the wreck.

"Remind me to offer him swimming lessons sometime, Birdie."

* * *

 ** _Egg Carrier crash site - morning_**

Gamma exited back out onto the rear deck, surveying its surroundings. Three of the E-100 series had been rescued. Its mission was nearly complete.

"Units remaining," it began, and hesitated a long, long moment. For some reason, something made the next part hard to say. It raised its hand in front of its face and studied it.

"Gamma…."

The faint noise of a jet booster sounded from above, and Gamma looked up in time to see a robot painted in black and white fly overhead. It didn't appear to notice Gamma, and Gamma hadn't seen it in this form before, now simply a floating body with two huge laser cannons in place of arms - but the writing on its side, freshly painted and unmarred by battle, was unmistakable.

"…Beta."

Its final mission objective.

Gamma began to follow the flying form, which glided overhead in the direction of the front of the downed ship. It had to use its own jet boosters to fly surreptitiously above the tangled mass of metal that made up the ruined Sky Deck, staying as close as it dared to Beta, before landing on the other side and continuing forward. It rounded the main power generator, destroyed and belching cold white steam, and on the other side discovered Beta waiting silently at the far end of a flat section of deck, facing Gamma as it rolled around the structure.

"E-102 Gamma," it said simply.

"E-101 Beta."

A moment of silence.

"I have received an upgrade since the last time you defeated me. It appears you are still the same inferior model you always were."

 _Resentment_ , Gamma realized. It could put a name to the emotion. Beta resented Gamma for the special treatment the doctor had given it right from the very beginning, ever since it first fought Beta, and now that Gamma had turned on the doctor….

"I know you deactivated Zeta." Beta raised its arm cannons and aimed them at Gamma. "You have betrayed the doctor, even as he raised you higher than any other E-100 series robot."

"I have renounced the doctor." Gamma raised its own cannon. It knew how this had to end, even if Beta didn't. A strange feeling coursed through it, not within its processors but something deeper. Fear? Sadness? "It is the only way."

Amy flashed through its mind once again, staring at it from between the bars of a cell.

Beta wasted no more time with speech, and fired.

Gamma managed to dodge out of the way of the blast, but it was powerful, the shockwave rocking it on its feet. It fired again, and again, Gamma barely staying ahead of Beta's aim. It knew that its brother would have to stop to recharge soon, so it just kept rolling, and sure enough, after a few more shots the barrage ceased.

Beta raised its arms in front of its chassis, forming a solid wall of metal, and gunned its jet boosters forward, aiming to ram Gamma.

With one last burst of energy, Gamma slid to the side, then spun its torso and unloaded every last missile it had into Beta's back.

It worked. The armor there was weak, and Gamma watched as it disintegrated, leaving a mass of melted internal wiring exposed. Beta sparked, all movement ceasing as it lost its hover function and clanged down against the deck.

Gamma lowered its cannon slowly, waiting for Beta's panel to slide open and release the animal it knew was inside. Nothing happened.

It took a single step closer, and with a screech of tortured metal Beta spun, and fired one last shot from both its cannons.

Gamma felt the hole tear through its frame, but felt no pain.

Beta's form writhed one last time as its circuits misfired, and went still. Flames burst out of its metal frame, consuming it quickly, and Gamma watched its side panel slide open to release a cream-colored bird.

Gamma tried to turn away from the sight, to let Beta's body die in peace, but its servos weren't responding properly. Alerts had begun to sound all throughout its system, warning of errors, malfunctions, massive internal damage. It touched the panel on its own side, finding it unblemished.

Its body was dying, but its soul… its soul would survive.

Finally, straining, Gamma managed the turn, the cream-colored bird chirping at it and following. It flitted in front of Gamma's eyes, and as its vision began to fill with static, something else replaced it. The image of three birds - cream, light blue, dark pink. This wasn't in its memory databanks, but somehow… it knew this image.

One final goodbye. One last thank you.

Its vision returned abruptly, its audio receptors suddenly crystal clear. It had toppled over, lying on its side, facing out toward the distant cliffs of the Mystic Ruins. The water splashed loudly against the side of the fortress' wreck as heat began to overtake Gamma's body.

Its final sight: his friend - Amy - and the blue bird, climbing over the side onto the deck. Her eyes locked onto Gamma's, wide with shock, for a split second.

Then the flames consumed it, and it went dark.

* * *

 ** _Egg Carrier crash site - morning_**

 _"Mr. Robot!"_

Amy barely had time to cry out to her friend before it exploded, flames flickering over its crumpled, sparking form.

"No…."

She approached it, unable to believe what she was seeing. Her friend… it had helped her, and she had helped it, and before they could meet again - now, just like that…. She sank to her knees in front of it, tears welling up in her eyes.

Behind it, the burning form of another robot lay still. One of Eggman's. So her friend had turned against Eggman after all… and sacrificed its life to stop one of his robots. Amy wanted to reach out and hold its hand one last time, even if it couldn't feel it, but the flames were hot, and its exposed internal wiring was sparking dangerously.

Then she noticed something. A cream-colored bird was descending toward the robot's broken form, twittering rapidly. Amy's eyes widened as a panel in Gamma's side opened, untouched by the flames, and another bird emerged - this one a dark pink.

Birdie began to chirp frantically from her shoulder, and lifted off just as the other two noticed him. All three began to fly around in a frenzy, chirping and diving around midair. Amy wiped her tears and began to smile. "Birdie, it's _them!"_

They had been on the Egg Carrier after all - just not how Amy had expected them to be. She knew Eggman had used small animals to power his machines in the past, but somehow the thought had never crossed her mind that her friend might have had one inside it. And now, with its sacrifice, Birdie could be with his family once again. Amy gave Gamma one last, sad look. "Thank you," she said quietly.

She looked up just in time to see Birdie shot out of the air by a metal fist.

 _"Birdie!"_

She gasped in horror and scrambled over to his limp form, lying unconscious on the deck. He was completely still as she scooped him up, feathers ruffled - she couldn't see any sign of blood, but he wasn't moving.

Behind her, she heard the sickeningly familiar sound of whirring gears.

 _Zero._

Amy froze.

It had survived the Egg Carrier crash after all - and apparently, it held a grudge. Amy expected fearful shivering, more tears… but this time, her vision went red.

"How could you _do this?"_ she screamed. She placed Birdie gently back on the floor next to his near-hysterical family and stood, whirling around and whipping out her hammer in a fury. This thing had dogged her for far too long, kidnapped her, chased her, and _now_ , it had hurt her friend. This was the final straw.

Zero bobbed up and down in front of her, claws snapping. "You messed with the wrong girl!" she hissed through her teeth.

It rushed her, claws outstretched, and Amy sidestepped, swinging. The hammer connected and knocked it back a few feet, but only left a small dent in the side, to match the one she'd given it back in Twinkle Park.

It spun, charging once more, and she hit it again, leaving another dent. At this rate, the thing would never go down. Its armor was simply too tough.

Instead of rushing her a third time, Zero tried a different tactic. It folded its arms in close, and a laser extended from its forehead - straight toward her. Amy yelped, expecting a burn, but nothing happened. She realized it had just painted her as a target, and its right arm was readying to deliver a punch as it had to Birdie. She swung her hammer just as the arm shot out, and felt the blow reverberate up her arms as it connected. When Zero tried to withdraw its arm, the sound of grinding metal filled the air - the blow had bent it, and it stuck out awkwardly, unable to retract.

 _"You like that, you punk?"_ Amy shouted, baring her teeth. Zero bobbed faster, clearly enraged, and despite herself she took a step back. She knew she could damage it, but she needed something to take it out permanently….

As Zero closed in on her, she felt heat splash against her leg from behind and realized that she was standing just in front of Gamma's burning remains. She heard them spark again, and an idea entered her head, even as her heart clenched.

"Mr. Robot," she said quietly as Zero rushed her a third time, "I need one last thing from you."

Amy sidestepped at the last moment and spun, throwing all her weight of her spin into a blow from the hammer that slammed into Zero from behind.

Zero flew forward, and the bottom of its frame met the sparking wires below it. It froze, electricity arcing along its chassis, and short-circuited, blowing the top panel on its head clean off. Amy leapt into the air with a furious scream, all her grief pouring out of her in the sound, and brought the hammer down hard on its inner workings.

The top of its head flattened completely, and Zero crumpled. Amy watched as fire began to consume it too, and backed away just before it exploded, sending twisted bits of metal scattering over the deck.

The two robots burned together - one her enemy, one her trusted friend.

Amy watched them for a few more moments, breathing heavily, before quiet, disheartened chirping reminded her of Birdie's condition. She turned around and dropped to her knees as Birdie's family sat next to him in worry. Carefully, she picked him up again, holding him in her cupped hands.

"Please, Birdie," she said. "Wake up."

Her heart leapt as Birdie stirred slightly. He fluttered one wing, then opened his eyes and let out a small peep. Amy let out a breath of relief. "Birdie! Are you okay? Can you fly?"

Birdie stood back up, looking ruffled, but ultimately uninjured. The blow must have just knocked him out briefly. The other two birds twittered joyfully and fluttered up, perching on her hand and leaping around him for joy, and Amy laughed along with them.

Birdie's brown eyes met hers, and he chirped one more time. Even though she couldn't understand him, she knew what he was saying. "Thank you."

Then he and his family lifted off, flitting upwards far above Amy's head. Amy stood to watch the three of them fly off, disappearing into the bright sky above.

And just like that, she was alone on the wreck.

* * *

 ** _Mystic Ruins - morning_**

"Kid. Hey, kid."

Tails blinked groggily. "What's…?"

"Kid, this is your stop. Or at least, it's the last stop on this route. Mystic Ruins."

Tails' eyes flew open. _Mystic Ruins!_

He had gotten straight on a train to the ruins after his heroics in Station Square, eager to meet back up with Sonic. He hadn't even noticed that he'd fallen asleep on the war over.

Tails leapt out of his seat to find the Mystic Ruins station master staring down at him, looking bemused. "Sorry!" he said, making a run past her for the exit door and stumbling in his haste.

"Hey, no need to rush it, kid! We've got all day here."

But he _did_ need to rush - not knowing whether Sonic or Amy were okay was killing him, and besides, he had something important to tell Sonic. Bright, warm sun washed over him as he exited onto the platform, and he didn't even bother with the stairs, leaping off the side and letting his tails lower him safely to the grass below.

His immediate thought was to check his workshop, but he didn't even make it that far - Sonic was sitting at the edge of the cliff nearby, staring out to the ocean beyond.

 _"Sonic!"_

Sonic turned and smiled broadly, getting to his feet as Tails sprinted toward him. "Hey, Tails! Amy told me you were getting some sleep at her apa-"

He was cut off with a grunt as Tails slammed into him, hugging him tightly and laughing giddily. "I beat Eggman!"

"…what?"

Tails let go to see Sonic staring down at him, confused. "I beat Eggman!" he repeated, bouncing slightly on the balls of his feet in his excitement. "After I dropped Amy off in the city and she went to go find you, Eggman showed up and launched a missile at the city, but it didn't explode and I had to chase him to where the missile hit and I fought him, I fought one of his creations on my own and I _won!_ I saved the city!"

Sonic looked like he was deep in thought, and Tails' spirits fell slightly.

"This was last night?"

"Yeah, just a few hours ago - I didn't actually sleep in Amy's apartment, this happened before - "

"Nice _going!"_

Sonic's smile was back, and Tails' mood instantly rose again.

"All by yourself? Taking on one of Eggman's big constructs?"

"Yeah!"

Sonic raised a hand high above his head for a high five, which Tails returned enthusiastically, leaping to reach.

"I knew you could do it, buddy!"

Lost in the warm glow his success and Sonic's praise gave him, it was a moment before Tails remembered the other reason why he was here. He shook himself mentally. "What about you? Eggman said he lost you in the jungle last night?"

Sonic turned his gaze back out to the ocean. "Yeah. Got lost for a while in there. Had some kind of weird… dream, in an ancient temple way deep in the jungle."

Tails paused, his memory stirring. Something he'd nearly forgotten in the excitement of the past few days. _Wait a second_ …. "Weird dream in a temple?" he repeated. "Wait. Before you had this dream… did you see some kind of orange firefly?"

Sonic turned back to stare at him. "Yeah, I did," he said. "It led me all the way to the temple, in fact. Without it, I'd'a gotten lost."

"And… in the vision, did you see the temple as though it were brand new?"

Sonic shook his head. "I saw an altar, on fire." He looked a little unsettled at the memory, and Tails wondered what else he might have seen there to disturb him so. "There was this echidna girl…."

"Echidna girl?" Tails remembered her, speaking to him, telling him her name. "Tikal?"

"Tikal? Was that her name?"

"That's what she told me…."

Sonic looked as confused as Tails felt. He hadn't even considered that someone else might have had the same experience with a strange vision as he had. When no explanation had been forthcoming once he'd returned to the real world, he'd simply dismissed it as some weird hallucination, perhaps related to the knock on the head he'd received during the plane crash. But now… could there be more to it?

"When I followed the orange light into the temple," Sonic said, folding his arms and tapping his foot in thought, "it brought me to this ancient mural. It looked like it was carved ages ago, and the centerpiece looked a bit like Chaos… but uh, a lot bigger."

Tails felt his heart sink in dismay. "So there's more going on here than we thought." He sighed and kicked idly at a rock near his feet. "I thought by defeating Eggman, that would be the end of things… we wouldn't have to worry about any more trouble around here."

"Hey, don't worry, Tails," Sonic said, staring intently out into the ocean as though watching something. "You did a great job, either way."

Tails followed his gaze to see a small rowing boat being borne on the gentle sea waves back to the ruins, rowed by a familiar pink and red figure.

"And maybe we're not the only ones to have had those visions."

* * *

 ** _Mystic Ruins - late morning_**

When Amy's boat reached the dock, she found Sonic and Tails already waiting for her. She raised a hand preemptively. "Don't worry about me!" she said as the nose of the boat bumped gently into the wooden platform. "I took care of everything aboard the Egg Carrier's wreck, and I did it all by - "

"Amy!" Sonic interrupted, and she huffed at him.

"Please, Amy, this is important," Tails said, staring earnestly into her eyes. She decided to put aside her annoyance for the time being, climbing out of the boat and slipping off the life jacket. They were both staring at her.

"What? You guys look serious."

"Yeah," Tails said. "Listen, over the past couple of days, have you had any weird… visions or dreams? Anything to do with an ancient temple, or a burning altar, or anything like that?"

"Visions?" she said, bemused. But then a memory floated back to her - sitting on the floor of a hallway aboard Eggman's ship, an orange light, and yes, a strange, dreamlike altar….

"Um, maybe? I saw an altar, but it wasn't burning. It was surrounded by chao, and there was this echidna girl…."

Sonic and Tails exchanged a knowing glance, and Amy folded her arms, feeling out of the loop. "Why?" she said. "I thought it was just a weird daydream. You guys saw this stuff too?"

Tails nodded.

"Did it have something to do with that orange light I saw?"

"We think so," Tails said. "At least, it makes sense. Why else would we have all seen an orange light right before we got these visions?"

Amy frowned. "Could Eggman be behind this? I know that we - "

"Who, _Eggman?"_ Sonic said, cutting her off. She raised an eyebrow at him. "Nah, all that Egghead can do is build robots. Besides, Tails told me he put him out of commission in Station Square last night. Stopped him from blowing up the city! Right, Tails?"

Tails rose up to his tiptoes, looking pleased. "Right!"

Amy was about to ask about the defeat Sonic had handed Eggman just a couple hours ago as she watched, when she noticed him giving her a meaningful look behind Tails' back. She caught on. Sonic was boosting Tails' ego, letting him think _he_ had dealt the final strike against Eggman. Her heart warmed at Sonic's kindness - especially considering that normally he missed no opportunity to brag about his heroics - but she couldn't let Tails know, so instead she turned to Tails and feigned vague annoyance. "I _thought_ I told you to get some rest at my apartment."

"That wouldn't have saved the city!" Tails fished out her keychain and tossed it back to her. "You'll have to have me over some other time, when the city isn't in danger of being blown to bits."

"Oh! I say we all have a sleepover soon! We can get ice cream, watch movies - "

A rumbling noise cut her off, coming from somewhere far away and high above. All three of them looked at one another for a split second, then took off running up the wooden stairs, through the platform's lower structure and back out onto the grass next to the train station. Amy and Tails gasped simultaneously, staring above the cliffs opposite the coastal dropoff.

Something was plummeting out of the clouds - an island.

"Angel Island!" Tails said. "It's falling again!"

The massive island disappeared behind the cliffs, and a second later a boom rang out as it hit the ground. The ground underneath their feet shook as though in a small earthquake.

"What's going on?" Amy said, her heart pounding, unable to believe what she had just seen.

Tails was the first to turn to her. "You were never on Angel Island in the first place, huh Amy?" She shook her head. "This last time it fell because the Master Emerald was shattered…."

"Ah, I hope old Knucklehead hasn't let it happen again," Sonic said with a faint, wry grin. "We'd better go check on him."

He dug his heels into the ground, getting ready to take off, but Amy grabbed his wrist. From out of a cave in the cliff face, she could see a figure approaching - a very large, purple figure, with a frog sitting on its shoulder. It waved frantically with the fishing pole held in its hand. "Wait," she said. "Who's _that?"_

Sonic and Tails followed her gaze, and spoke at the same time.

"Hey, it's that guy who was - "

" - looking for the frog - "

The cat stopped in front of them, panting, eyes wide. "Hi, I'm Big, Big the Cat," he said quickly. "Pleased to meet you little girl - and you remember me, don't you?" The last bit he addressed to Sonic.

 _"I_ remember you," Tails muttered. Big didn't appear to hear.

"I saw something near my house that I thought you should know, because you saved me and Froggy from that liquid monster before!"

Sonic cocked an eyebrow. "Chaos?"

"It was in the jungle!" Big looked like his eyes were about to pop out of his head at any moment, so Amy reached out, patting his free hand.

"Hey, calm down! We're here to help," she said. Big took a deep breath.

"That mean human man in the flying machine was there too. They both took off racing away, and I just heard the island fall from the sky - my friend lives there!"

"You're friends with _Knuckles?"_ Sonic said incredulously.

Big nodded. "He helped me get onto the fortress before, and he came with me when we escaped - I told him how to get back home after." He hung his head slightly. "I just wanted to help my friends…."

"Hey, cheer up, pal!" Sonic smacked Big on the arm in a decidedly less gentle comfort gesture than Amy had employed. "We were on our way up there ourselves, so feel free to tag along! The more the merrier!"

Big brightened, and Amy smiled at him.

"All right then," Sonic said, already leading the way to a different cave in the cliff face that Amy presumed would lead to the island. "Let's get going! And by the way… you haven't happened to have any weird visions lately, have you?"

* * *

 ** _Angel Island - late morning_**

Knuckles coughed, sprawled out awkwardly at the base of the Master Emerald's altar. He had been sitting at the edge of it, completely unprepared for the island to fall a second time, and toppled straight over the edge to land painfully in the dirt.

He lay in place until the last of the quaking had ceased, and picked himself back up slowly. A quick glance up told him the Master Emerald was still intact, but that only made him feel worse, not better. At least if it had shattered again, he would have an solid explanation for what had just happened. But if it was still whole….

 _"Why?"_ he shouted, slamming his fist into the side of the altar. The emerald had been restored. The island should be aloft. There was no reason it should have fallen again. He'd done everything he could to put this right, and still….

At his feet lay two of the Chaos Emeralds, glimmering softly. They must have fallen from the top of the altar. He picked them up, turning them over and over in his hands and thinking things over. He had placed the six emeralds he had collected from Chaos next to the Master Emerald for safekeeping, at least until Sonic inevitably came to get them for another adventure. Knuckles knew the Master Emerald had the power to neutralize the Chaos Emeralds' power… but could the opposite occur, if enough were gathered?

"I'd better take them to Sonic," he muttered. As much as he disliked the idea of asking him for help, cocky as he was, Sonic had more direct experience with them than Knuckles did. Perhaps together they would be able to figure out a way to fix this problem.

He turned - only to come face to face with the last person he would have expected to see.

Eggman was speeding up to the altar in his Egg Mobile, eyes wild. Knuckles ran to intercept him, still holding the emeralds, ready to drive him away, but as Eggman got closer Knuckles could see that he looked truly frightened. They came to a stop in front of each other, and before Knuckles could speak, Eggman waved his hands in the air.

"Knuckles - you have to listen to me!" He pointed back the way he'd come. "This is terrible! Chaos is - is - "

"Is _what?"_

But Eggman's eyes had focused just past Knuckles, with a look of terror. There was a roar and a flash from behind him, and Knuckles turned to see an unpleasantly familiar sight. Chaos had already absorbed the four emeralds left on the altar into itself, changing shape, and now its green eyes had fixated on the two still held in Knuckles' hands.

Despite himself, he felt a pang of fear course through him. And Chaos began to slither closer.

* * *

 ** _Angel Island - late morning_**

Sonic was the first onto the downed island, the other three hot on his heels. He knew the way to the altar from here, and quite soon it came into view, the Master Emerald glimmering whole and undamaged at the top. Sonic frowned as he ran. _Well, that's one theory disproven. But if the Master Emerald isn't broken, then what…?_

His question was partially answered as soon as they rounded the altar. Lying on the ground, looking disheveled, were Knuckles and, of all people, Eggman, the Egg Mobile deactivated on the ground a few paces away.

"Knuckles and… Eggman?" Tails said as they came to a stop in front of the strange pair. "What happened?"

Eggman just continued to lie in place, but Knuckles raised his head shakily. "Sonic…" he grunted, managing to get to his hands and knees.

"C'mon, Knuckles," Sonic said, offering him a hand. "Did you and ol' Eggy wear each other out fighting for the - "

"Sonic, it was Chaos." Knuckles took the proffered hand and got to his feet, though he still looked somewhat unsteady. "It's still alive. I took the Chaos Emeralds back here with me when we defeated it back on the Egg Carrier, but - " He winced and held his side, where Sonic could see a nasty-looking bruise forming. "He attacked us and stole them from me."

Eggman growled, pushing himself to his feet as well. Sonic tensed for a fight, but he only said, "That beast isn't going to get away with this." He stumbled toward the Egg Mobile.

"Wait!" Knuckles called, but Eggman had already climbed back into his vehicle and restarted it, taking off across the island and back toward the ruins.

"He's not the biggest threat right now," Sonic said, even though he was itching to chase after him. "If Chaos gets the last emerald, we're done for!"

"Where is it?" Amy said.

Tails spoke up. "It was in my Tornado 2, but I'm assuming that went down with the Egg Carrier…."

"I was just there, and I didn't see your plane - "

"I know where it is!" Knuckles and Big said simultaneously. Everyone stared at them; Knuckles turned even redder than usual.

"Big and I… uh, flew it off the Egg Carrier just as it was going up in flames. We landed - "

"It crashed near my house in the jungle!" Big said. Knuckles planted his face into his hand.

 _"Crashed?"_ Tails' face fell in disappointment, then he sighed. "It's okay. I guess I can always just start again from scratch…."

"Hey, at least it didn't explode on the airship like you were worried," Amy said, nudging him.

"Can you take us there?" Sonic said to Big. Big nodded confidently.

"My house isn't too far into the jungle! That's where the plane is."

"Okay then, let's get going!" Sonic turned to lead the way off the island only to find himself face to face with a familiar orange light. It began to spin around the whole group.

"Oh, here we go again," he said as light engulfed them.

* * *

 ** _Ancient altar - the distant past_**

When Sonic opened his eyes, he half expected to be standing with the others, but he was alone. He was back on the other side of the bridge at night, the altar dark and untarnished across the way.

There was nothing for it but to find out what this newest vision would show him.

He took off across the bridge. As he approached, he found himself at the back of a group of echidnas, clearly dressed for battle. Spears and knives were clutched tightly in their hands, quills tied back out of their faces. It gave him an uneasy feeling, watching them shift from foot to foot restlessly as though itching for a fight.

"Get out of my way!" an angry, rough voice called from the front of the group.

"No!"

That was Tikal's voice. Quickly, Sonic skirted the group of warriors and headed to the side, where he could see Tikal standing in front of the altar, arms outstretched, blocking the way. She stood alone. At the base of the altar, a group of chao huddled in fear.

"Did you hear what I said?" The speaker was an echidna at the head of the group, dark red and adorned in richer garments that marked him as the clear leader of the band. He glared down at Tikal, but she stared back stubbornly, sadly.

"I won't obey!"

"We _need_ those seven emeralds!" the leader hissed, and grunts of agreement sprung up from the others. "With them, we will become more powerful - power for the people! And they're _your_ people too, Tikal!"

Tikal didn't move.

"We _must_ get those emeralds!"

"Greed is our enemy," she said, voice carrying over the crowd, a hint of pleading in her voice. "Once it starts, you will _always_ want more! Today, it's the emeralds. Tomorrow, it's the land of a neighboring clan, their houses, their rightful assets - when does it stop?" She stepped closer and clasped her hands in front of her chest, staring up into the leader's eyes. "Please, don't do this… Father, I _beg_ you…."

For a long, long moment, there was silence. Sonic felt sick. He ached to do something, anything - but he had a terrible feeling that he knew what was about to happen.

Tikal's eyes shone with hope as her father finally opened his mouth.

"I don't listen to the words of a child."

She gasped, her eyes widening in horror, and clutched at his arm.

"Father, no - please _don't_ \- "

He shoved her away, and she stumbled back. The leader lifted his spear and shouted. "Ready, men?"

 _"No! Please - "_

"Charge!"

 _"FATHER!"_

Tikal screamed as the warriors charged past her, one of them knocking into her, hard. Almost in slow motion, Sonic watched her collapse underneath the feet of the advancing forces. They rushed the altar, and Sonic watched, horrified, as they began to kick squealing chao out of their way.

Screams split the air, and even though Sonic knew there was nothing he could do, this was all in the past, he found himself screaming too. "No! _Stop!"_ This was everything he stood against. He couldn't imagine even _Eggman_ murdering innocent chao.

Fires sprung up in the nearby brush as the warriors put their torches to it, and Sonic ran after them as they made for the steps, staying on their tail. He glanced down at the shallow water around the altar as he ran. It was rippling, and as he watched, it began to bubble furiously as though boiling. Then a bright light drew his eye to the top of the steps.

The seven Chaos Emeralds had moved from their individual pillars to circle around the Master Emerald, glittering in the firelight. The forces paused in uncertainty at this new development, and Sonic waited, tenser than he'd ever been in his life.

A puddle formed in front of the emeralds.

Chaos rose, taking shape in its weakest, emerald-less state. The warriors shuffled, unsure how to react. "It's a monster!" someone in the group shouted - and Chaos' eyes narrowed. Slowly, the seven emeralds descended into its liquid body… and the scene began to brighten, then distort, so that Sonic was unable to look at whatever Chaos was becoming….

The ghosts of screams echoed in his ears, and the light blinded him.

When it finally cleared and everything went quiet, Sonic expected to find himself back with his friends, but he was standing back at the foot of the altar. The warriors were gone. The fires had grown considerably, and the pool surrounding the altar was completely dry, no trace of water left on the inside. Sonic turned to look behind him and met a familiar, sickening sight - at least a dozen dead and dying chao, strewn haphazardly across the ground amidst broken weapons. And lying in the center of it all was Tikal, unmoving.

"Hey," he said, moving closer to her and crouching to put a hand on her shoulder. "Are you okay?"

"Unh…." She groaned, and pushed herself painfully to a sitting position, eyes closed. "I think so." She opened her eyes slowly, and stared in horror at the scene that lay before her.

"No…."

Tikal scrambled on hands and knees to the nearest chao, scooping it up gently in her hands, but it hung limply, eyes blank and staring. A choked sob escaped her. "No, no, _no_ …."

She bent over the chao, sobs wracking her body. Sonic stood frozen, helpless. What could he do? He couldn't change what had happened so long ago, and there was no way to cheer someone up after something so horrific.

"Tikal, I…."

A roar rang out, echoing from somewhere beyond the island. Tikal's head snapped up, tears leaving dirty streak marks down her face, fixing her gaze on the altar. Sonic looked, and realized that despite everything, the Master Emerald was still there, seemingly untouched. Tikal lay the chao down gently, as though it were merely sleeping, and limped as fast as she could up the stone steps. Sonic followed behind her, unsure of what she was planning to do.

"The servers are the seven Chaos," she murmured, standing in front of it and outstretching her hands before her. It seemed like a mantra she had repeated many times before. "Chaos is power, power enriched by the heart. The controller is the one who unifies the Chaos."

She bowed her head as though in prayer.

"The seven emeralds can change our thoughts into power. If this emerald can contain that power…." She looked up at the Master Emerald, which had begun to glow, and took a deep, shuddering breath.

"Please - _you must stop him!"_

Light burst from the emerald, and Tikal spread her arms wide as Sonic threw up an arm to shield his eyes. The light consumed her, and Sonic's vision went white.

* * *

 ** _Angel Island - late morning_**

The blinding light faded into ordinary daylight, and Sonic opened his eyes.

All five of them - Tails, Amy, Knuckles, Big, and himself - were standing in a circle, facing each other. Sonic knew instantly upon looking around that everyone else had seen the vision as well. Amy seemed on the verge of tears, Tails had covered his mouth with his hand, and Big actually _was_ crying.

"What they _did_ …" Knuckles breathed, looking disturbed. He shook his head silently, apparently lost for words. Everyone looked as bad as Sonic felt.

"I saw him before," Amy said suddenly. All heads turned to her. "Chaos, I mean. I didn't realize it - I saw him rise up in front of Tikal in my first vision." She shook her head. "He wasn't trying to hurt anybody. He was protecting the chao! He was nice - not a monster like they said."

"Wait," Knuckles said. "You've all been having these visions too?"

Amy nodded.

"He was just trying to help his friends," Big said, wiping at his eyes. "Like I tried to help Froggy."

"What the warriors did must have enraged it," Tails said. "When it saw what they - what they had done to the chao, to Tikal… there was no stopping it. It went berserk."

"And Tikal stopped it," Knuckles said quietly. "It was sealed away in that emerald, all those years… it and Tikal. I never even knew."

Sonic took a deep breath. Finally, the pieces of this mystery were coming together - and they were the only ones who knew. "All right, guys," he said, and everyone turned to look at him. "We know what happened. When Chaos got hold of the seven emeralds, he went crazy. He must have wiped out that whole tribe before Tikal stopped him. It's not his fault, but right here, right now, he has to be stopped. We have to get that last Chaos Emerald from the Tornado 2 before Chaos does, and then figure out a way to stop him for good."

All around him, heads nodded. At least he knew a pep talk would do them good.

"We ready?"

A chorus of affirmations met him, and Sonic turned to Big.

"All right, big guy. You know the way - how about you show us your house?"

"I'd be glad to, friend!"

And together, the five of them ran off towards the jungle, hoping against hope they could get there in time.

* * *

 ** _Mystic Ruins jungle - noon_**

Tails ran with the rest of the party, using his tails now and then for an extra burst of speed to keep up. He had been worried about his plane ever since he'd left it behind on the Egg Carrier. He'd left in in the hopes that Sonic could use it to escape, but apparently this Big had commandeered it instead along with Knuckles, crashing it. Tails couldn't help feeling a little bitter about that - he'd worked hard on that plane, only for it to now be lying damaged in the dirt deep in the jungle.

But right now, he couldn't focus on that. He twirled his tails again to catch up to the party, breathing hard from exertion. Right now, all they needed was the Chaos Emerald inside of it. He could worry about rebuilding the plane later.

"It's just a bit further," Big panted, running at the head of the group with Sonic at his side. He pointed. "Just up - "

A deafening roar of water cut him off, and everyone skidded to a halt in the dirt. Exactly where Big was pointing, a swirling vortex of water rose high above the treetops, spray hitting them from where they stood. The column erupted for only a few seconds, and then splashed back down, leaving an uncomfortable silence.

"Come on!" Sonic said, rushing ahead. Tails and the rest of them scrambled to keep up, and just a few more paces through the thick, soaking wet underbrush revealed that they had been looking for.

The Tornado 2, still in its battle shape with its wings twisted and broken, sat nose first in the mud, dripping with water. Nearby, Tails could see a small open-air dwelling made of wood and leaves - Big's home, clearly. But Tails' focus was on his plane - he rushed forward first, splashing through the stream in front of him, feet sticking in the soft mud as he knelt down by the plane.

The panel that had contained the Chaos Emerald had been ripped off its hinges, the machinery inside soaked and sparking. And the emerald was gone.

Wet footsteps sounded behind him as the rest of the group crowded around. "So he's got the last emerald," Sonic said.

Tails shut his eyes and pressed his forehead to the plane. They'd been too late after all.

"Where is he?" Knuckles said, and Tails heard the sound of him punching his fist into his palm. "We have to take him out now, before this gets worse!"

Tails opened his eyes and stood. "Sonic, back when we first fought Eggman at my workshop, he said he was going to use Chaos to destroy Station Square…."

Comprehension - and horror - dawned in Sonic's eyes. "We gotta get there!" He made to run off, but Amy grabbed his wrist, dragging him back.

"We should take the train," she said. "It goes pretty fast, and we can't keep up with you otherwise, Sonic."

He grumbled, but Tails nodded. "She's right. We don't know when this thing is gonna make its move, but hopefully we'll have enough time to get there."

Knuckles nodded. "Right!" Before Sonic could argue, he took off into the trees, and the rest of the group quickly followed.


	13. Open Your Heart

**_Train - early afternoon_**

The group had managed to convince the station manager, already shaken up from witnessing Angel Island's fall, to get the train moving ahead of schedule back to Station Square. Five panicked Mobians shouting all at once about destruction, monsters, and visions from the past could wield a lot of power, as it turned out. And the woman already held a clear soft spot for Amy, who simply blinked her large green eyes at her until she gave in.

Now, all of them but Sonic sat in an otherwise empty train car in a tense silence as it raced back to Station Square. Sonic had elected to remain outside, running alongside the train, keeping pace easily. He'd insisted he wouldn't take another ride on a train after his first one with Tails several days ago. Amy was sure he was going to tire himself out that way, but she'd been watching him through the window for quite a while now, and his energy seemed nearly limitless.

She couldn't help but be impressed.

"What if we don't get there in time?" Tails said quietly, breaking the silence. Everyone turned to look at him.

Knuckles crossed his arms and stared around at the group. "Did any of you actually see the perfected Chaos in your visions? What it looked like with all the emeralds inside of it? It'd be good to get a sense of what we're going up against."

"Sonic said he saw it on a mural in this ancient temple in the jungle," Tails said. "But he never mentioned to me what it looked like."

Knuckles stared. "Ancient temple?" Then he shook his head, smacking his palm against his forehead. "Agh. I _knew_ I should have gone in there…."

The train swayed, and Amy braced her feet against the floor to stabilize herself.

"Well, we don't even have any idea how to defeat it even if we do find it in time," Tails said. "In the past, it looked like Tikal just sealed it away in the Master Emerald. I suppose we could try the same thing, but…."

Amy turned to look at Big. "Do you have any ideas?"

Big shook his head. "I'm just here to help my friends," he said. The frog on his shoulder croaked in agreement.

The train swayed again, stronger this time. Amy twisted to look out the window again and gasped.

"Hey - Sonic's gone!"

"What?" Tails hopped up on the seat next to her, and the others crowded around to peer over their shoulders. Sure enough, no Sonic - just the ocean lapping against the shore a short distance away.

Amy huffed and folded her arms. "He must have run on ahead. I _told_ him not to…."

Tails leaned over to peer ahead. "It looks like we're just about to hit the outskirts of Station Square. Maybe he just wanted to get a head start - "

An earsplitting shriek rang out through the train car, and Amy screamed in shock. The train jerked, its brakes grinding to a halt, throwing everyone to the floor. For nearly half a minute the train's forward momentum continued, then finally, it came to a stop in the middle of the tracks.

"Hey - what gives?" Amy grumbled, picking herself back up and pressing her hands against the window. They had come to a stop in the middle of the city's suburban outskirts.

"Attention all passengers," came a voice over the train's speaker system. "This is an emergency. Please step away from the exits. When they open, exit the train in an orderly fashion."

The group stared at one another as the announcement began to repeat.

"What's happening out there?" Knuckles said.

Amy turned back to the window in time to see the first wave of water rushing toward them.

* * *

 ** _Station Square - early afternoon_**

Sonic had noticed the ocean levels rising more than a mile away from the city, and realized instantly what it must mean. Chaos had demonstrated a connection to water in the past, and with all seven Chaos Emeralds, Sonic saw no reason it wouldn't be able to control the ocean itself.

And if there was one thing he couldn't fight against, it was water.

Sonic reached the busy streets of the city in record time and raced through at top speed, shouting, "Get to higher ground! The water is rising!" Most people only stared or looked for the source of his voice as he streaked past them, but others recognized him and began to move toward doorways, uncertain. Sonic skidded to a stop in a large, crowded square, listening intently.

He could hear the faintest rumble underneath the chatter of the city's residents - Sonic doubted human ears would be able to detect it. A rumble - then a rush. Waves, forming in the sewers below, getting larger with every second.

Sonic took a deep breath to yell another warning, and instantly every manhole cover on the street was blasted into the air.

Screams rang out as geysers of water exploded upward, flooding the square within seconds. Fighting to control the panic threatening to rise up in him, Sonic spotted a child crying nearby, parentless, and sprinted over to scoop him up, water splashing behind him. He leapt up just as the water reached his hips, using windowsills on the nearest skyscraper to escape the rising tide. Below, people were scattering and scrambling for the nearest buildings, crowding doorways in an effort to get inside and escape the water.

Sonic reached the top of the roof and set the little boy down in time to look down and see the streets cracking, letting more water gush through. Windows on every building began to shatter as water exploded outward from the plumbing systems, creating filthy waterfalls all pouring into the square. Sonic could hear similar commotion across the entire city, and clenched his fist.

They'd been too late after all.

A roar rang out from the direction of the beach, and Sonic watched in horror as a giant wave - taller than a good amount of the skyscrapers - rushed toward the heart of the city. He stumbled back in sheer terror as it grew larger and larger, then collapsed under its own weight just before reaching the square. Sonic found himself blinded by a massive spray, the kid screaming next to him.

When he finally dared to open his eyes again, the destruction around him was unbelievable. Every building had sustained massive damage - hardly a window remained intact, water still pouring out into the square, and some skyscrapers had even toppled, leaning diagonally across other buildings. The sky had gone from clear and sunny to filled with dark gray rainclouds hovering low over the landscape. Sounds of distress from the city's residents echoed everywhere around him, huddled in the top floors of buildings and calling for missing family and friends.

A door burst open behind him, and Sonic spun to see several people rushing out onto the roof where he stood. The kid yelled and ran to one of them, who hugged him tightly. "Did you save him?" she said to Sonic. "Oh, thank you, thank you." Sonic shrugged.

"Just stay here," he said. Things seemed to be stabilizing in this area of the city, but some distance away he could see water bubbling and roiling madly. Before the woman could respond, Sonic leapt off the side of the building and landed on the next one over, hopping from rooftop to rooftop to reach the site of the disturbance.

Before he could get very far, another set of windows on the tallest skyscraper exploded in a shower of glass shards. He skidded to a halt, watching. The water wasn't forming a waterfall here - it seemed to be taking form, swirling around in a great shapeless mass. Then it began to reshape itself. A serpentine creature, body made of water and covered in rigid semi-solid blue armor, spikes and watery tentacles extending from its body… and a familiar pink brain enclosed in a capsule of liquid on top of its head. And as Sonic watched, heart pounding, it opened its alien green eyes, slitted pupils narrowing and focusing on the city below.

It was the creature from the mural, in the ancient temple. Chaos, perfected.

* * *

 ** _Station Square outskirts - afternoon_**

Tails, Amy, Knuckles, and Big stood, dripping with water, on the raised highway running through the city. The streets had flooded as they made their way in after Sonic, and within mere minutes devastation had spread across the entirety of Station Square.

Tails was heartbroken. Just last night, he had fought so hard to protect the city. And now….

Big and Knuckles looked upset enough that such a large population center had been so thoroughly wrecked, but Amy looked about how Tails felt. She stared out at the flooded streets and toppled buildings, hands covering her mouth, looking horrified.

"My _home_ is out there," she whispered. "All those people… my friends…."

"Amy, I'm sure they're okay," Tails said, even though his stomach was twisting at the sight of the city.

Amy nodded, then took her hands away from her face. "We have to stop this." She turned to all of them. "Sonic is out there somewhere, and we all know he can't swim."

"He can't?" said Big.

"So _we_ have to be there for him! He's going to try to save the city, I just know it. And _we_ have to be the ones to back him up!"

Tails stared down at the water, which looked to have stopped rising by now but showed no signs of draining either. "Uh, how exactly _are_ we gonna help him save the city? By pulling the plug?"

"By fighting that thing, probably," Knuckles said, pointing out across the city.

The rest of the group turned to look, and were met with the sight of a watery, snakelike monster rising high above the skyline, the sharp teeth in its mouth visible even from here as it let out an earth-shaking roar.

"What _is_ that?" Amy said, eyes huge.

"If I had to guess, it's what Chaos looks like now that it has all the emeralds." Knuckles shook his head. "This must be what Sonic saw in that temple…."

As he spoke, several brightly glowing multicolored pinpricks emerged from the creature's head, and began to spiral around in a circle. _The emeralds_ , Tails realized. For a second, they all shone white, then the light faded and a soft boom rang out as they scattered, falling from view behind the buildings.

Knuckles shut his eyes and bowed his head. "It must have absorbed their power and flung them away," he said. "They're gone, along with any chance we had of beating that thing."

Amy whirled on him. "No they're not! We watched them fall inside the city. They must still be scattered around Station Square!"

Something Amy said clicked inside Tails' head. "She's right," he said. "The emeralds always seem to have a habit of turning up exactly when and where they're most needed. It's like they know…."

Knuckles stared at him, then sighed. "I guess you and Sonic have more experience with that than I do."

"They won't have scattered very far, not at a time like this. I'm sure of it."

"So we find them!" Big said, bouncing a little. "We find them and use them to help Sonic!"

"Exactly!" Amy said, clapping her hands together.

"We'll have to split up," Tails said. "I guess it's a good thing we can all swim…."

"Then let's go," Amy said, already starting to run along the highway. "We don't have any time to waste!"

After a few seconds, Knuckles nodded and leapt for a nearby building, clinging to its side and beginning to climb to the top. Big leapt over the railing into the water, the frog still hanging onto his shoulder, and began to swim with surprising agility through the waves despite his size.

"I always thought cats hated water," Tails muttered to himself, then took to the air, rising until he hovered high above the rooftops. It would be difficult to find the emeralds in such a large city, but they had to. He wasn't about to let Station Square be truly destroyed, not after what he'd accomplished in the name of protecting it - and there was no way he was letting Sonic take on Chaos alone.

Determination refreshed, he began to fly overhead - then stopped and gaped as a familiar battleship overtook him from above, heading straight for Chaos.

* * *

 ** _Station Square - afternoon_**

"The Egg Carrier II was constructed in case something like this happened!"

Eggman's voice boomed out across the entire city, emanating from the new battleship. It looked nearly identical to the old one as far as Sonic could tell, if noticeably smaller, and its front panels were already opened and prepped to fire the main laser that had shot the Tornado out of the sky just days ago.

 _Great, just what we need,_ Sonic thought. _Another troublemaker on the scene_. But Eggman didn't even seem to be focusing him him. The airship's nose was pointing directly at Chaos ahead, and Eggman addressed his next statement to it.

"You have defied your master, you stupid beast. Now prepare to face the full consequences of betrayal!"

The laser fired, along with what looked like every turret on the hull. The beam arced over the city and hit its target squarely, but Chaos hardly appeared fazed. It screamed in rage, a high- piercing, blood-curdling sound, and retaliated with several bullets of pure energy, rocketing out of its mouth straight toward the Egg Carrier II.

The ship rocked, several explosions blooming on its hull, but it didn't go down, instead returning fire.

As much as Sonic wasn't keen on battling a being made out of his biggest weakness, there was no way he was going to let Eggman steal today's victory. He would just have to find a more creative way of taking the beast down. Sonic made to leap off the roof of the building he was on, to make his way closer to Chaos, but before he pushed off a familiar orange light appeared in front of him.

He stepped back and shielded his eyes, but this time it didn't cause his vision to go white. Sonic reached out a hand, palm upwards, and it settled in his hand instead of running away. As it bobbed, something suddenly clicked for him, and his eyes widened.

"It's _you!"_ he said in wonder, staring at it. _"You're_ the one from the visions… the one who sealed Chaos inside the Master Emerald…."

The spark began to glow brighter, and flashed briefly. When the light cleared, the spark was gone, and a familiar figure stood on the roof in front of him.

"…Tikal," he finished, staring at her.

She didn't look a day older than she had been in the visions, her eyes glowing brightly as she gazed at him. In fact, so was the rest of her, her skin emitting a faint glimmer as if she were a ghost, or a memory.

"My heart has always been in the Master Emerald, along with Chaos'," she said softly, looking sad. "It was the only way to stop him. That day, I sealed both our fates - to be sealed away forever, to stop his destruction… in return for my life. I've been holding him back for the last four thousand years."

 _Ouch_.

Sonic stepped closer. "But your family…."

"My family was _dead."_ A single glittering tear fell from the corner of her eye, disappearing into mist before it hit the ground. "Chaos killed everyone - he paid them back in kind for what they did to his people."

The sounds of the battle between Eggman and Chaos continued, ringing out fiercely across the ruins of Station Square.

Tikal shook her head bitterly. "It wasn't his fault - he was only trying to protect the chao, the emeralds. But what they did…." She took a breath. "…what my _father_ did, it enraged him. His heart was overcome by anger and sadness. His role as a protector has become so corrupted over these thousands of years that I fear it has been erased completely, replaced with only a mindless need for destruction."

"Tikal, that can't be true. There has to be some way to bring him back."

She bit her lip. "I don't… I don't think…."

"He flung away the Chaos Emeralds, didn't he?" Sonic had seen it happen. "He might be vulnerable now. If we find them again - "

"He only flung them away because he has already absorbed their power," she said, shaking her head again. "We can't."

Sonic stared out at Chaos, which was firing a bluish beam of energy from its mouth at the Egg Carrier. Another loud blast rang out as it hit - Eggman's battleship wouldn't last long.

"If we let him continue on like this, he will destroy the world!" Tikal said, pulling his attention back. "Where is the Master Emerald, the controller? We must seal him back inside it now, before that happens!"

"But how will that help?" Sonic said, frustrated at her obstinance. "It's not gonna change how he feels inside. He'll still be just as angry and destructive as he is now - this will just happen again in the future. And even if it doesn't, he'll just be trapped in there unwillingly, forever."

"What _choice_ do we have?" Tikal cried, stomping her foot soundlessly on the ground. "I can't watch Chaos destroy another world! Not again!"

"He's destroyed one city." Sonic pointed across the gap to an adjacent skyscraper, where he could see the faces of scared citizens peeking out a shattered window at the scene. "But the people are still alive. We still have time." He turned back to Tikal, who looked immensely conflicted. "Chaos trusted you once, didn't he?"

She stared at the ground. "Yes," she whispered. "That's why I can't let him down again. I can't - "

"Sonic!"

The voice came from below. Sonic stepped closer to the edge of the building and looked down.

"Tails?"

It was him - and Knuckles, and Big, and Amy. They were gathered together, standing on the still-intact highway and waving up at him. Something small glimmered in each of their hands, and in spite of the devastation around them, Sonic could feel a grin spreading over his face.

"Come on!" he said, gesturing to Tikal. Before she could protest, he leapt off the edge of the building, landing with a grunt on the highway next to his friends. The water churned below, but the asphalt of the road remained out of its reach for now.

"We found four around the city," Amy said, holding out her Chaos Emerald. The color was gone, leaving it a dull gray, but it still shone in what weak sunlight managed to cut through the heavy clouds above.

Tikal descended from above, floating down unaffected by gravity and alighting in the middle of the group. Everyone stared as she examined the emerald held by Knuckles. "Its power is gone, but…."

"It's not all of them, but every one helps," Tails said. "At least, that's what I figured."

A massive boom echoed across the city, and they all turned in time to see the Egg Carrier II go up in a fireball and begin plummeting into the sea just beyond the shore. A tiny figure shot up and away from it, presumably containing a furious but defeated Eggman. Chaos screamed in triumph, watching its opponent burn.

"Well," Knuckles said, "looks like we really are on our own against that thing now. And I don't know how much we can do with only four emeralds…."

Chaos turned its head, fixing a single, slit-pupilled on them. Sonic wondered if it could sense the emeralds - or Tikal.

Then a faint chorus of chirping sounded behind them, and next to him, Amy gasped.

Sonic spun. Flitting toward the group, each gripping an emerald in their talons, were three tiny birds - the blue one Amy had befriended, and two others that could only be his family. They landed on Amy's shoulders and head as she laughed in delight, dropping the emeralds into her arms.

"Birdie!" she said. "I can't believe it!"

"Chirp chirp!"

"That makes all seven," Knuckles said, staring around at the group.

Amy turned back to Sonic, her eyes shining, holding out the four emeralds in her hands. "Here. I don't know how they'll help in this state, but you'll get more use out of them than I will."

All around him, the others did the same. One by one, smiling in spite of themselves, they held out the emeralds to him. And within each one, a dim light began to shine.

"Wha - what's happening?" Big said, staring at his, which had begun to glow yellow.

"Chaos must have only used the negative power of the emeralds," Tails said in wonder as purple overtook his. "Our friendship is restoring their power - their _real_ power."

"A literal positivity circle?" Knuckles said, eyebrow raised, as his emerald turned green.

"It's true!"

"Sonic," Amy said as her arms filled with a rainbow of colors, the emeralds returning to life. "I know you can do this. I believe in you!"

"Sonic…." Tikal murmured softly, staring at the emeralds. They rose out of everyone's hands on their own, color restored, gleaming with power.

Sonic knew what was happening - he'd done this before. He closed his eyes as the emeralds formed a circle around him, spinning slowly at first, then faster.

He was going to save the city. And he was going to end Chaos' eternal rage.

For a few seconds, his senses whited out, and all he was aware of was that overwhelming sense of purpose. Energy filled him, pouring into him, until it felt as if his whole body was made of pure light.

When he reopened his eyes, his body shone gold. The emeralds were gone, all of their power focused on empowering him instead of maintaining a physical presence. His spines lifted into the air as though buoyed up by a gentle breeze, held aloft by pure energy. He almost felt as if the power might spill out of him if he moved.

At any other time, he might have smiled before the battle, perhaps made a wisecrack or two - but the power of the emeralds kept him solemn.

Sonic turned to the others, his light reflecting in their eyes. Tails was pumping his fist in the air, Big looked astonished at the sight, and even Knuckles gave him a quiet grin and a thumbs-up. Amy's eyes shone with hopeful tears. Sonic nodded to them.

"Wait here," he said simply.

He turned to face Chaos, but before he could move something touched his arm - too soft to be fully solid. Tikal stepped in front of him, and gave him a small, sad smile.

"You were right about Chaos," she said. "Now let me help you help him."

Her form dissolved into pinpricks of light, which entered him, surrounded him. Compassion, regret, determination. He felt it all. _Don't worry, friend. I will help you as I was not able to before_.

Then Sonic lifted into the air, the cheers of his friends ringing out behind him, and sped across the water toward Chaos.

* * *

 ** _Station Square - late afternoon_**

Beneath him, the water rushed by, choppy but no longer rising any higher. Chaos had been kept busy enough by Eggman that it didn't have time for more destruction, and Sonic intended to keep it that way. He didn't have to fear the water any longer - he was flying over it, literally, and even if he were to go underneath….

Everything Sonic had seen pointed to Chaos' main methods of attack all being by mouth. Even in a super state, trying to weather its attacks directly would be a bad idea. He only had a limited amount of time, and he didn't know how long, before the power would fade. So perhaps it was best to come at Chaos from below.

Sonic looked up and met Chaos' poisonous gaze, its slitted pupils fixated on him, a mere golden spark amid the gray expanse of the water filling the streets.

"Come on, Chaos!" he yelled, his voice echoing on the buildings around him.

He clenched his fists and put on a burst of speed as Chaos roared. The base of its watery body was located at the end of a main street - a straight shot. It gave Sonic space to build up speed, but also meant that Chaos had a direct line of sight to hit him, and Chaos realized this about the same time that Sonic did.

With an unearthly scream, Chaos opened its mouth wide and spat out a barrage of purplish energy bullets, which arced toward him. Sonic waited until the last possible second, then dodged to the left, the bullets impacting the surface of the water with a force that sent fountains of spray splashing up loudly behind him.

He let out a breath, flying so fast above the water that it left a wake in his trail. Now that Chaos was stunned, recovering from the massive use of energy in its own attack, it was time to see if his plan would work.

Sonic took a deep breath and with one last burst of speed, dove directly into the base of Chaos' liquid body. He could hear the swirling of the water around him and angled upward, and even though he could feel currents trying to drag him back down he sliced through the water with no more difficulty than through air due to his sheer velocity. He reached its head and rocketed outward, straight through the capsule containing the creature's brain.

Back outside the water, Sonic's hearing cleared in time to catch an earsplitting screech, and Chaos' entire mass exploded, showering the nearby buildings with water.

 _Is that it?_ he wondered, hovering in midair and staring down at the shockwaves of water where it had been a moment before.

There was another roar, this time to his left. At the end of the next street, Chaos was reforming, rising out of the waves once more.

Wasting no time, Sonic dove down, skimming the water once again. Coming from below had worked exactly as he had planned - it allowed him to avoid direct hits from the creature's mouth, and as long as he had enough speed before diving in, he seemed to be able to make it through Chaos' body to the brain without a problem. He'd defeat it yet.

Chaos unleashed another hail of energy bullets, and Sonic wove around them, kicking up huge waves behind him in the process. The creature raised its head and screamed as he sped down the street toward it, and Sonic suddenly realized he was slowing - something was pulling him back.

He glanced behind him - a waterspout had formed in the center of the street, whirling around, scattering spray and shattering glass nearby. Sonic strained against its pull, but it was strong, created and controlled through Chaos' immense power. Even if he broke free, Sonic didn't know if he could build up enough speed to make it through Chaos' body to its head on the second strike.

Unless….

Sonic stopped fighting entirely and simply kept himself aloft, curling up and letting the waterspout suck him in. He felt himself be tossed around, spinning in a circle, and for a moment it felt almost like the tornado he and Tails had encountered in the Windy Valley. That was exactly what he was counting on.

He focused inward, drawing on the emeralds' power, and a few seconds later burst with radiant energy. The waterspout dissipated, and all of its momentum absorbed into him, sending him rocketing down the street at such a velocity that the few intact windows in his wake shattered. Maybe he couldn't hear the sonic boom he left behind, but he felt its effects - and so would Chaos.

Chaos fired the energy beam from its mouth, but Sonic was going so fast that it went straight over his head. He hit Chaos' body with tremendous force and rocketed to the top, delivering another painful blow to its brain. The sound of the spray raining down into the water below as Chaos' form exploded was immensely satisfying.

Sonic would never have thought fighting a creature made of his biggest weakness would be so easy. He supposed that was part of the fun of a super state.

He spun and watched Chaos reform itself back at the end of the same street he'd just come down. It looked enraged, a fine mist beginning to swirl around it as though trying to form a protective barrier. With a grin, Sonic dove toward the water's surface as it unleashed a new wave of energy bullets, these ones flickering between purple and yellow like some sort of strange fire. One hit a nearby building with a painful blast, and Sonic winced. He would have to stay in the center of the road as much as possible to prevent it destroying any more of the city than it already had.

Another waterspout appeared, directly ahead of him, but this time he swerved around it at the right angle to avoid being caught in its pull. Then came another energy beam, which Sonic rolled right under, coming out the other side unscathed.

 _Heh, this entire fight is rinse and repeat… literally_.

Sonic was so focused on gaining speed, so confident by this point that he was untouchable, that he didn't register the second barrage of bullets flying toward him until they were almost in his face. With a yelp of surprise, he managed to dodge the first one, but a second one caught him dead on.

He was blasted backward with a sensation that wasn't quite pain - more like being electrocuted without being hurt. But it knocked the breath out of him, and as he caught himself midair just above the water, another one hit him, then another, until he was nearly halfway back down the street.

Sonic gritted his teeth. This was no time to be getting careless, yet that was exactly what he'd done. With a shout, he boosted forward again across the water, taking advantage of Chaos' momentary windedness, and built as much speed as he could before hitting the base of its body.

It wasn't enough.

Sonic could feel the resistance of the water now, far more than ordinary water, pushing him back. He pushed against it, aiming toward the brain that he could see glowing above through the swirling liquid mass, but halfway up he lost all momentum and went tumbling, shoved out of Chaos entirely and barely catching himself before his feet touched the water below.

As he caught his breath, Chaos' form shrank, until Sonic was hovering above a blank stretch of water. He turned midair, expecting to see it appearing at the end of the same street - but a sudden chorus of screams caught him off guard.

* * *

 ** _Station Square - late afternoon_**

"It's forming _here?_ " Amy shrieked.

Just in front of the highway where the others stood, a nub of water was rising, growing larger and larger until Chaos sat directly in front of them, fully formed, gleaming in the weak sunlight managing to cut through the clouds. Amy could almost have reached over the railing and touched the swirling mass of its body if she'd had a mind to - which she definitely did not.

She stumbled back closer to the rest of the group in paralyzing fear as they all stared up at it. For a moment, it simply seemed to be collecting itself, staring straight ahead as though searching for its opponent. But then its head turned, and one single slit-pupilled eye fixed directly on them.

"Uh, guys?" Tails said, his voice a squeak of terror. "I think we should run."

One of Chaos' waving, watery tentacles raised high into the air above their heads, and with cries of fear, the group scattered. Amy dove to the right, hoping against hope that the blow would miss everyone, and felt a tremendous strike shake the entire highway. Asphalt crumbled under her feet and she screamed as she felt herself falling, grasping blindly at anything that might save her from a plunge into the waters below.

Her hands closed around something long and thin, and for a second she dangled, eyes tight shut.

When she opened them, she realized she wasn't hanging onto a broken metal strut as she had assumed, but a fishing pole. "Don't worry, little girl!" Big's voice shouted above her.

She felt the fishing pole being pulled upward, and then an orange-gloved hand grabbed her wrist. She grasped back, and felt herself being dragged back onto solid road. Amy collapsed onto the asphalt, panting, heart pounding, and didn't move until she felt someone pulling her to her feet.

"Sorry to be rough," Big said, grabbing her hand and staring at something with a terrified gaze just behind her, "but I think we gotta get out of here!"

Amy spun to find Chaos' eye mere feet away, fixated on her and Big with a venomous stare. She opened her mouth, but no sound came out.

The creature bared rows of sharp teeth - and with a tremendous crash, exploded into a thousand tiny droplets of water, showering Amy with a freezing spray.

She fell backwards in shock, sitting down hard, and then realized that where Chaos had been a moment before was a golden, shining light. Sonic waved down at her from where he hovered in midair.

"Don't worry, Amy!" he yelled, already looking up at the far end of the street, where Chaos was reforming. "I've got this!"

"Sonic!" she cried back. She wanted to say something else, not knowing what, but in a burst of light he took off once again, rocketing over the water towards his opponent.

"You have a nice boyfriend," Big said from behind her, and in spite of herself, Amy blushed.

* * *

 ** _Station Square - late afternoon_**

Sonic had managed to get Chaos good while it was distracted, but it must be getting desperate, targeting his friends like that. He had to keep its focus on him, and him alone, before it could hurt more people.

The problem was, he could feel his energy weakening, slowly but surely. Dodging Chaos' next set of energy bullets took more effort than before, and more than once he felt his shoes drag in the water before he willed himself back up. The Chaos Emeralds were powerful, but that power wasn't unlimited, and Sonic knew that he had at most a few minutes before he lost his super state, and with it, any chance of saving the city.

Chaos screamed, and Sonic wondered if it could sense his weakness. It fired off an energy beam, which Sonic evaded, but he overshot it and tripped on an exposed bit of roof just poking out from under the water's surface. Before he could recover, another barrage of bullets erupted from Chaos' mouth, and several slammed into him, sending him spinning wildly off course.

When he regained his bearings, Sonic realized he was lying on a broken piece of highway floating on the surface of the water. He pushed himself up, ready to continue the fight, but the gold on his arms was flickering - his power was running out.

 _"No,"_ he grunted, struggling to retain it, but he knew there was nothing he could do, not even through sheer willpower.

He couldn't lose like this, not when everyone so desperately needed him….

 _Please…._

"Sonic!"

The yell came from somewhere above him and to his right. Sonic raised his head just as another waterspout formed in front of Chaos, rushing along the street toward him. The call had come from a human citizen, staring out at him through the broken window of a skyscraper. "Sonic, you can do this!"

"Yeah!" another voice rang out from a different building. "We believe in you!"

"Get up, Sonic! You can beat it!"

More and more voices began to cry out, echoing off the walls and the water, until the city rang with voices cheering and chanting his name. He breathed deeply as the waterspout grew closer, and realized that his glow had steadied. It was fainter than before, a hint of his normal coloring showing through, but it was enough - enough for one last blow.

He would just have to make it a good one.

The wind whipped up a spray against his face as the waterspout began to suck him in, and like before, he curled up, spinning midair under his own power. He was whipped around again and again, gaining speed - and with one last burst of energy, Sonic put everything he had into becoming a living bullet, not bothering with the low approach this time but bursting out of the top of the waterspout straight toward Chaos' head.

It screeched, and fired one last beam directly toward him - but when it hit it didn't seem to hamper him. In fact, he could feel himself charging up, Chaos energy pouring into him until he thought he might explode with power. He shot forward, straight into Chaos' mouth just as its jaws closed.

For a moment, all Sonic knew was white-hot energy, boiling around him as the entire force of Chaos' attack was inverted in on itself, hitting it all at once from the inside.

Then he was thrown backwards by a massive shockwave, time slowing. He watched, falling back through the air, as Chaos was consumed by a pulsing column of light, its body seeming almost to melt into it.

Then the light faded, Sonic lost his golden glow, and he plunged into the waves below.

 _I saved them all_.

He'd won. Even if….

Well. The others were safe. That's all that mattered in the end.

Sonic sank like a stone, curling into himself as the water took him.


	14. Calm after the Storm

**_Station Square - late afternoon_**

"Sonic! _Sonic!"_

Someone was shaking his arm roughly. He groaned, rolling over and holding out a splayed hand. _Five more minutes…._

"Sonic, you're not taking a nap, you're _dying!"_

That got Sonic's eyes to open. He wasn't lying on a rooftop or a lounge chair or any of his other favorite napping spots, but on wet asphalt. Above him, stormclouds were rapidly clearing from the sky, above the skyscrapers… skyscrapers still soaked with water, windows shattered….

Everything came rushing back. Chaos, the flooding, the city - Sonic sat up abruptly and immediately choked. He rolled over, coughing furiously, the water he'd swallowed making its way out of his lungs. Someone next to him placed a hand on his back as he coughed and coughed endlessly. It took forever, but finally Sonic was able to take a real breath, and gasped for air, breathing deeply.

He heard Tails sigh with relief next to him. "He's okay."

Sonic looked around. Sitting all around him were all the friends he'd left back on the highway - Tails, Amy, Big, and Knuckles, staring down at him and looking a mixture of concerned and relieved. Amy had tears in her eyes, but she was doing a great job of holding herself together, all things considered.

Sonic raised himself into a sitting position. "What exactly happened?" he said, rubbing the back of his neck.

"After you dealt that last blow, the water started receding," Tails said, pointing out to the ocean. "But before it had finished, we realized that you'd fallen into the water. We wanted to send someone in after you, but…."

"It was too dangerous," Knuckles finished. "The current would have pulled anyone who tried out to sea."

A fate Sonic wouldn't wish on anyone. He shuddered. "So then… how did I…?"

He trailed off. A familiar orange light was glimmering in front of his face, and a brief flash later, Tikal's spirit stood before him once again. Sonic stood, and she gave him a soft smile.

"I saved you," she said. "I couldn't lift you out of the water, but I could keep you from being swept away. With all you've done for me… it was the least I could do."

Sonic noticed Knuckles shuffle a little at her words, looking pensive, and was about to ask him what was up when his eyes widened, staring in shock and horror at something behind him. Sonic whirled.

A puddle left behind by the flood, in the middle of the street, was taking shape in an all-too-familiar manner. Sonic stepped in front of the others, even though he didn't feel in any condition for another fight, as Chaos reformed, taking its original, most basic emerald-less shape.

"It doesn't have the Chaos Emeralds this time," Knuckles said, stepping up beside him and readying his fists. "We can take it!"

But its stance didn't look aggressive to Sonic - it simply stood and stared at them, its green eyes unreadable. Slowly, Sonic dropped his stance, beginning to realize what was happening - what his and Tikal's combined power had truly accomplished.

"I dunno, buddy," he said to Knuckles, returning Chaos' gaze. "Maybe this time it just wants to be friends."

Knuckles gave him his best are-you-kidding-me look, but just then Tikal stepped forward from behind the group. She stared back at Chaos, and her eyes shone with hope.

"My friend?" she said softly.

A chorus of tiny, childlike voices began to echo from the far end of the street. A group of chao were running as fast as they could along the wet asphalt, their miniscule wings flapping madly to keep their balance, heading straight for the group. They crowded around Chaos' feet, "chao chao"-ing in delight.

"These are the chao you were protecting," Tikal said. She reached out a hand to one, and it squeaked happily as though it recognized her, climbing into her palm. She held it out to Chaos, who studied it with its strange green eyes. "They have survived through generations, populating the world, living peacefully with humans. You never failed to protect all of them…."

Chaos' eyes narrowed, but it was in happiness, not anger.

Next to Sonic, Knuckles relaxed, lowering his fists. "It looks like… Chaos has changed again," he said, looking thoughtful. "This time for the better."

Tails stepped up as well. "Sonic, your super state must have neutralized it. I'm sure of it."

That must have been what Tikal was doing when she'd joined her power with his. She hadn't been trying to help him fight it - she'd been imbuing every blow with kindness, compassion, love. If anything, it was Tikal who had saved Chaos, not him.

He didn't bother saying this out loud, however.

Tikal turned back to the group. "Thank you," she said, eyes shining with phantom tears. "All of you - thank you so much. I never dreamed something good could come of all this - but because of your help, I have been able to achieve something even better."

Sonic grinned. "No sweat!"

He did so like happy endings.

Tikal's form began to glow white, the light encapsulating the forms of Chaos and the chao. Sonic shielded his eyes, as did the others next to him, and when the light faded, the street was empty save for himself and his friends.

Or perhaps not quite - hovering at the end of the street was a familiar flying vehicle. Eggman was staring down at the scene, too far away for Sonic to discern his expression. But instead of approaching, after a few moments he simply turned and flew off into the distance. Sonic waved cheerfully after him. _We'll play again some other time_ , he thought.

"Where did they go?" Amy said, walking up with Big so that all of them stood in a line, staring out at the ocean visible beyond the end of the street.

"Back into the Master Emerald, I suppose," Knuckles said, and sighed. "Which reminds me. I should be getting back. With everything restored, it's time for me to go."

Amy whirled on him. "Go? But the city still needs our help! Even though the water's gone, the city was still destroyed!"

"Sorry, Amy, but I have my duty." Knuckles began to walk down the street, heading for the city's outskirts, but not without a final parting wave. "Don't worry - I'll make sure to visit from time to time."

"You'd better!" Sonic called out after him, smiling. It had been far too long since the last time, and he wasn't about to count Knuckles out as a close friend.

Then he noticed the doorway of a building nearby, and a face peek out. Citizens of the city were starting to creep cautiously out into the open. More and more appeared, and one of them spotted the group, pointed, and yelled. "Hey! It's Sonic!"

Sonic turned to the others quickly. "Well, I'd stay and help too," he said as people began to run over en masse, "but I think I'll come back later - after the crowds stop trying to mob us. See ya!"

"Sonic!" Tails called after him, but he was already gone - racing up the street, shoes slapping the wet pavement, wind whipping freely in his face, as the sun emerged over the horizon.

* * *

 ** _Angel Island - night_**

It was far into the night by the time Knuckles finally got back to the Mystic Ruins. With the damage to the city and coastline, the trains were unable to run, which had meant a long, long walk back. But he was somewhat pleased to find Angel Island still on the ground once he got there. He'd barely stepped back onto its surface when he felt the rumbling that signified its rise once again.

Tikal and Chaos must have been holding it for him.

He was tired, and ached to sleep after such a long day, but he took the walk slowly, enjoying the sights. Out here, one could almost believe that none of the adventures with Chaos had even taken place. Apart from some trampled down grass running to and from Red Mountain, Angel Island remained peaceful, nearly untouched by the events of the past few days.

As the altitude of the island leveled out and the tremors stopped, Knuckles saw the altar in the distance, the Master Emerald still glowing healthy and whole atop its stand. It was only once he reached the altar and walked to the top of the stone steps that he realized that was not the only thing glowing - the slightly shimmering form of Tikal sat cross-legged in front of the emerald, eyes closed.

"Tikal," he said, and her eyes opened. "I thought you would have gone back into the emerald by now."

"No," she said, standing. "I'm not going back into the emerald. Not this time."

"What?"

She stepped closer, smiling sadly. "My friend… I died almost four thousand years ago. My body is gone; only my soul remains on this world. My purpose was to hold Chaos, to prevent him from destroying the world… but he is at peace once again. There is no need for me to remain."

Knuckles felt his heart squeeze.

"But before I left, I wanted you to know. None of this would have been possible without you. And for that, I am forever in your debt."

Knuckles shook his head slowly, shame spreading through him. "No," he said as she gazed at him. "I failed you. You tried to lead me into that temple early on, to warn me, and I ignored you. I turned my back on you. It was Sonic who trusted you enough to follow you in there - I… if it wasn't for me, all of this might not have even happened."

Tikal held up a hand, stopping his rant. "You have guarded this emerald since before you were old enough to remember - alone. You are the last of your line, the last guardian. Chaos approves of you, you know. You've done well."

"I…." He hesitated, dropping his gaze. This was more painful than he had thought it would be. "All this time, I knew _nothing_ about my past, Tikal. You've been the only glimpse - the only chance I've had to learn more of my people…."

She placed a ghostly hand on his shoulder, the pressure faint but warm. "If there's anything I've learned from this adventure, my friend, it's that you must look forward to the future - not mire yourself in the past."

Knuckles nodded slowly, still feeling that point of pain in his chest.

"Knuckles…."

He looked up at her. She was smiling at him.

"With Chaos restored, the emerald no longer needs a permanent guardian. I know that you have worried in the past about who will carry on your duty once you are gone. But Chaos is here, sane once more. You don't need to worry any longer."

Knuckles refrained from asking her how she knew his thoughts in such a way, and instead said, "So… you're saying the emerald is safe now?"

"There will surely be threats to the emerald in the future, and until you too leave this world, I would hope that you would continue to fulfill your role as protector. But it doesn't have to be your only concern. You can… go out. Make friends. Live your life."

He nodded, a pressure point of pain over his heart.

Tikal never dropped her soft smile. "I'm afraid this is goodbye, my friend. I'm… going away to see my family. It's been so long since I've said hello."

Knuckles eyes burned with tears that he would never have let another person see.

She stepped back, her slight form framed by the glow of the Master Emerald. "But Chaos and I do have one last parting gift for you. I hope you appreciate it."

As Knuckles watched, overcome by bittersweet, Tikal's form began to glow, and even though the light hurt his eyes he kept them open until it had faded from view and the only light left came from the emerald and the moon overhead.

His eyes stung. All this time, he had never known the true story of the Master Emerald, of his people. Knuckles sat pensively at the top of the steps and lay back, staring up at the stars twinkling in the clear summer sky above. In a strange way, the shattering of the emerald had led to some good things. He never would have believed it just a few days ago, kneeling in horror at the broken base of the emerald, his island falling underneath him - but even with the damage Station Square had sustained, not all had been bad.

If it hadn't been for Eggman's plot, Chaos would never have had a chance to be restored. And Tikal… Tikal would never have had a chance to move on. They would have been released eventually, he supposed, even without Eggman's assistance, but Knuckles would never have been able to fix the problem by himself. That it had happened here, when Sonic and the others had been so close by….

Well, maybe Knuckles was just that lucky.

He sighed, his eyes drifting closed. It was time to get some sleep. Perhaps tomorrow, he could think more on Tikal's final words to him, but for now….

"Chao chao!"

Knuckles sat straight up, startled. He looked around him for the source of the noise and found himself face to face with a small, chubby chao. It stared up at him from its spot on the altar next to him, big blue eyes boring into his with curiosity.

"Chao?"

"What are you doing here?" Knuckles asked it, scooping it up carefully. It gave a squeak of delight, bouncing happily in his palm.

Then another chao approached from behind the first, and another from the air. Within the span of a minute, Knuckles found himself surrounded by at least a dozen, all making contented noises and snuggling up against them.

This must be what Tikal had meant by a parting gift, he realized - a colony of chao, living by the Master Emerald as they had done thousands of years ago. Keeping him company.

Of all the things he might have expected from Chaos' restoration, this was not one of them.

Knuckles lay back down, being careful not to squash any of the chao, some of whom had climbed up onto his stomach and chest to sleep. He was a little perplexed, but not unhappy. This was definitely not a bad outcome, he decided.

Maybe he would be on this island guarding the Master Emerald forever, maybe not… _but either way_ , he thought contentedly, closing his eyes once again, _I don't have to do it alone_.


End file.
